WASHINGTON — Former president Bill Clinton has offered several concessions to help pave the way for his wife to be nominated as secretary of state, Democrats close to the negotiations with the Obama transition team confirmed Wednesday.

Johnston County McCain supporters will hold an Oyster Roast and Convention Watching Party Wednesday in Smithfield to watch Gov. Sarah Palin accept the vice presidential nomination at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn.

Palin is only the second woman in history to run on a major party ticket.

John McCain’s supporters across America are inviting friends, family and co-workers into their homes and gathering at McCain campaign headquarters throughout the country to participate in phone banks and share in Governor Palin’s historic moment. Mayor Linwood Parker also serves as McCain County Chair for Johnston County.

Four Oaks Mayor Linwood Parker, Elizabeth Raynor and Johnston County McCain Supporters will gather at 7:30 p.m. at The Holiday Mart on Hwy. 301 in Smithfield.

For directions, contact: Mayor Linwood Parker at 919-631-6911.

The Wake County Republican party will celebrate John McCain’s acceptance of the Republican party’s nomination for President of the Unites States at a watch party Thursday.

The public is invited to Raleighwood Cinema from 8:30 to 10 p.m. on Thursday to enjoy watch Senator McCain’s acceptance speech on the big screen.  

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As far back as I can remember, one of my favorite things was when my parents let me stay up late to watch the Roll Call of the States during political conventions.  I guess that explains why I jumped at the chance to blog for Media General.

The Illinois Delegation was just recognized by the Secretary of the Convention to cast what I anticipated would be the deciding votes in the Roll Call of The States.  However, in a beautifully scripted play, Illinois yielded to New York as Senator Hillary Clinton walked out onto the convention floor.  Hillary stepped to the microphone in the middle of the New York delegation.  She moved “in the spirit of unity” that the rules be suspended and Barack Obama be nominated by acclamation.

The crowd went nuts as Speaker Pelosi called for a vote on the motion which passed and kicked off a celebration among all of the delegates in the hall.

This was a great way to remind everyone here and at home that we are a united party and a united people.  I will never forget being here for the most significant Roll Call of my lifetime.

–Bruce Thompson, NC Delegation

DENVER (AP) – Barack Obama, standing where no black has ever stood before, swept to the Democratic presidential nomination on Wednesday as thousands of national convention delegates cheered his improbable triumph.

Former rival Hillary Rodham Clinton asked the convention delegates to make it unanimous, the culmination of a painstaking agreement worked out between the two camps to present a unified front.

Obama was across town as the delegates he won in the primaries of winter and spring sealed his victory. Aides left open the possibility that he would briefly visit the Pepsi Center to thank his supporters, a routine event at recent national conventions. His formal acceptance speech Thursday night was expected to draw a crowd of 75,000 at a nearby football stadium where an elaborate backdrop was under construction.

Obama, 47 and in his first Senate term, carries the Democrats’ hopes of recapturing the White House into the fall campaign against Sen. John McCain and the Republicans.

Inside the convention hall, the outcome of the traditional roll call of the states was never in doubt, only its mechanics.

“No matter where we stood at the beginning of this campaign, Democrats stand together today,” declared Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida, a former Clinton supporter who delivered a nominating speech for Obama.

“We believe passionately in Barack Obama’s message of changing the direction of our country,” she said.

Earlier in the day, Clinton formally released her delegates amid shouts of “no,” by disappointed supporters. “She doesn’t have the right to release us,” said Massachusetts delegate Nancy Saboori. “We’re not little kids to be told what to do in a half-hour.”

Polls showed the campaign was a close one between Obama and McCain.

The same surveys showed a strong desire for change after eight years of the Bush administration, and Obama pledged an end to the war in Iraq and a fresh economic policy.

But even as he awaited his nomination, there was open talk in the convention city that his race remained a stumbling block to winning the White House.

The convention program also included the delegates’ acceptance of Obama’s choice of Delaware Sen. Joseph Biden as vice presidential running mate. Biden had the marquee time spot for his acceptance speech late Wednesday.
 
Former President Clinton also had a turn at the podium, this time in a supporting role for the man who defeated his wife in a bruising battle for the nomination.

Obama’s nomination sealed a political ascent as astonishing as any other in recent memory – made all the more so by his race, in a nation founded by slave owners.

The son of a white mother from Kansas and a black father from Kenya whom he barely knew, he attended college and Harvard Law School. In between was a turn as a $12,000-a-year community worker on the streets of Chicago.

He won his seat in the Illinois Legislature in 1996. But his first bid for higher office, a brash challenge to Rep. Bobby Rush in an inner-city Chicago congressional district, ended in failure in 2000.

Four years later, as a candidate for the Senate, he dazzled with a keynote address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, then won his election. He announced his presidential candidacy a scant two years after arriving in Washington.

With his gifts as a speaker, his astounding ability to raise funds on the Internet and an unmatched ground operation pieced together by political veterans, he won the first test, the Iowa caucuses, on Jan. 3
 
Clinton rebounded to win the New Hampshire primary five days later, and the two were soon matched in a grueling battle for the nomination that was not settled until the primaries ended in June.

“The journey will be difficult. The road will be long,” he said then as he pivoted to confront McCain.