Obama gains fresh Democratic support
WASHINGTON -- Barack Obama picked up fresh support from fellow Democrats eager to unify the party after a bruising battle for the presidential nomination on Wednesday at the same time he criticized Republican rival John McCain for supporting a "plan for staying, not a plan for victory" in Iraq.
"Keeping all of our troops tied down indefinitely in Iraq is not the way to weaken Iran, it is precisely what strengthened it," the Illinois senator said in a speech to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in which he vowed solidarity with the Jewish state.
He spoke on the morning after becoming the first black ever to win a major party presidential nomination -- an accomplishment that drew Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's attention.
"The United States of America is an extraordinary country. It is a country that has overcome many, many, now years, decades, actually a couple of centuries of trying to make good on its principles," said Rice, the first black secretary of state in history, serving in a Republican administration.
"And I think what we are seeing is an extraordinary expression of the fact that 'We the people' is beginning to mean to all of us."