US:LISA CANNON-RATLIFF (47) and her son Bryce (18) waited for hours outside St Paul's Excel Energy Centre on Tuesday for a front-row seat at Barack Obama's victory celebration.
As an African-American, Cannon-Ratliff wanted her son to witness a moment of history she had been waiting for all her life.
"I grew up with the whole Martin Luther King 'I Have a Dream' speech, the vision of civil rights. Getting to this point, that's incredible. My parents would have loved to have seen this," she said.
"My parents were sharecroppers and to go in one generation from a sharecropper's daughter to be able to take my son to see this is just incredible."
Obama celebrated his victory in the Democratic primaries at the venue where John McCain will be nominated at September's Republican convention, and much of his speech was an attack on the man he will face in the election.
Tuesday's primaries ended in a draw, with Obama winning Montana while Hillary Clinton took South Dakota, but before the polls closed, a flood of super- delegate endorsements put the Illinois senator over the delegate count needed for the nomination.
The convention hall was packed with a young, racially diverse crowd that interrupted Obama every couple of minutes with shouts of "O-Ba-Ma" and "Yes we can." Obama opened with an effusive tribute to his defeated rival, declaring that he was a better candidate for having "had the honour" to compete with Hillary Clinton. "Senator Hillary Clinton has made history in this campaign not just because she's a woman who has done what no woman has done before, but because she's a leader who inspires millions of Americans with her strength, her courage and her commitment to the causes that brought us here tonight," he said to cheers from his supporters.
Clinton was soon forgotten, however, as Obama turned his attention to McCain, beginning with the obligatory nod to his rival's record as a legislator and a war hero.
"I honour that service, and I respect his many accomplishments, even if he chooses to deny mine," Obama said, sounding a little snippy.
McCain has invited Obama to accompany him on a trip to Iraq, suggesting that the Democrat could benefit from some first-hand experience of the US military operation there. On Tuesday, however, Obama suggested that his rival would be better employed taking a closer look at life in the US.
"Maybe if he spent some time taking trips to the cities and towns that have been hardest hit by this economy - cities in Michigan and Ohio and right here in Minnesota - he'd understand the kind of change that people are looking for," he said.
Later, Obama returned to the loftier ground on which he feels most secure, declaring that his campaign was part of a long tradition in American life of seeking to leave "a world that's better, and kinder, and more just" to the next generation.
"This is our moment. This is our time. Our time to turn the page on the policies of the past. Our time to bring new energy and new ideas to the challenges we face. Our time to offer a new direction for the country we love," he said.
If this was Obama's moment, nobody seemed to have told Clinton, who was addressing supporters in New York as if the Democratic race was still in full swing. Introduced by campaign chairman Terry McAuliffe as "the next president of the United States of America", Clinton made a passing reference to Obama's campaign without acknowledging that he had actually won the nomination. Instead, she launched into a campaign speech on her own behalf, praising the astute judgment of the 18 million people who voted for her.
"In the millions of quiet moments, in thousands of places, you asked yourself a simple question: Who will be the strongest candidate and the strongest president?" she said.
Clinton's performance made little sense, except as a pitch for a place on Obama's ticket as the vice- presidential candidate.
In St Paul, Cannon-Ratliff was having none of it. "Too much Bill, too much Clinton," she said. "It's over."