Democrats make Hillary a historic nominee

Philadelphia, July 27 

Hillary Clinton secured the Democratic Party's White House nomination, coming back from a stinging defeat in her first presidential run in 2008 and surviving a bitter primary fight to become the first woman to head the ticket of a major party in US history. In a symbolic show of party unity, Clinton's former rival, US Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, on Tuesday told the chairwoman from the convention floor that Clinton, 68, should be selected as the party's nominee at the dramatic climax of a state-by-state roll call at the Democratic convention in Philadelphia.

Capping nearly a quarter century in public life, Clinton will become the party's standard-bearer against Republican nominee Donald Trump in the November 8 election when she accepts the nomination on Thursday.

In nominating Clinton, delegates made the point that the selection of a woman was a milestone in America's 240-year-old history. Women got the right to vote in 1920 after ratification of the 19th Amendment to the US Constitution. Clinton's husband, former President Bill Clinton, portrayed her in a speech to the convention as a dynamic force for change as he made a case for her White House bid. "Hillary is uniquely qualified to seize the opportunities and reduce the risks we face, and she is still the best darn change-maker I have ever known," he said, hitting back at Republican arguments she is a Washington insider tied to the status quo.

The Democratic nominee, who promises to tackle income  inequality, tighten gun control and rein in Wall Street if she becomes president, is eager to portray Trump as too unstable to sit in the Oval Office.

Trump, 70, who has never held elective office, got a boost in opinion polls from his nomination at the Republican convention last week. He had a two-point lead over Clinton in a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll released on Tuesday, the first time he has been ahead since early May.

Two delegates held up a red banner emblazoned "History" in white letters as Clinton's face showed up on the screen. In 2008, she lost a hard-fought nomination battle to first-term US Senator Barack Obama, who went on to become America's first black president. — Reuters

Sanders’ loyalists bash her nomination

Bernie Sanders loyalists protested inside and outside the Democratic National Convention site and clashed with police after Hillary Clinton won the party's presidential nomination

Despite Sanders’ calls for them to support Clinton, thousands of activists have taken to the streets during the convention this week to voice support for the liberal Vermont US senator and his progressive agenda

Moments after Clinton became the first woman to be nominated for president by a major US political party, a large group of Sanders delegates and supporters exited the Philadelphia convention site to hold a sit-in inside a media tent