At a town hall meeting in Southwest Virginia this morning, Barack Obama described the 16 month long, 54 contest race for the Democratic nomination “historic” while praising Hillary Clinton as a worthy opponent.

The nation’s first African American candidate for president also shared his thoughts on his monumental feat. “I stand before you as the Democratic nominee for President of the United States of America. I’m very proud of that. I’m very proud of that, and I’m proud of America for giving me this opportunity because obviously we all know that it’s a sign of enormous growth in this country. But we’ve still got work to do. Just winning the nomination is not the endpoint. The end point isn’t even winning the general election. The endpoint is making your lives better. That’s the reason that we are in this, that’s why we’re in this auditorium here today,” he said.

The candidate also announced today that the DNC will adopt the Obama campaign’s policy on refusing contributions from federal registered lobbyists and PACs. Said Obama, “Going forward the Democratic National Committee will uphold the same standard, we will not take a dime from Washington lobbyists or special interest PACS – we’re going to change how Washington works. They will not fund my party, they will not run our White House, and they will not drown out the voice of the American people when I am president of the United States of America.”