AP reports that it has a tally showing Barack Obama has clinched the nomination.

  WASHINGTON ... (AP) ... Barack Obama has effectively clinched the Democratic presidential nomination, based on an Associated Press tally of convention delegates.

  The tally put Obama over the top Tuesday, ahead of the results from the final primaries in Montana and South Dakota. The Illinois senator becomes the first black candidate ever to lead his party into a fall campaign for the White House. Obama outlasted former first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton in a historic contest and now faces Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona for the presidency.

My reaction is one I did not expect. Today, I cried.

More of my thoughts below the fold.

In my line of work, I encounter lots of people from all backgrounds, political persuasions and ethnicities. Some people blow you away with their charm, some bore you to sleep. But on rare occasions I meet people who are so inspiring that they make me want to do better.

One person is a woman who tries to save lives from gun violence, even though her youngest child was shot to death in a random shooting a year ago. Amid her grief, she used her money to start a radio program to tell listeners to end the violence. Politicians and bureaucrats pay lip service to this cause. But this woman, Queen Brown, lives it every day.

Some three months after Hurricane Katrina tore through Mississippi, Louisiana, Florida and Alabama, I finally visited my family in Mississippi. The visit was bittersweet. The landscape has changed much. Blue traps and piles of timber debris are everywhere still. But my trip was sad for another reason, which I will explain on the flip.

It really sucks that this is my first diary, but I'm running out of options. My family lives in a rural area in Mississippi, 90 miles north of Biloxi and they and their fellow citizens need help. No one has noticed their needs.

I live a thousand miles away in South Florida. Mama refuses to let me come up -- not that I can get to them because the highways that I need to get to them are restricted to emergency personnel. So I've resorted to emailing U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson, a congressman in Mississippi, to plead for assistance. Maybe someone else in the dKos community has some ideas.

My email is below: