Milestone but not nomination for Obama
Barack Obama was poised to reach a major milestone yesterday in the Kentucky and Oregon primaries - a majority of the pledged delegates offered in the Democratic presidential contest - even as Hillary Rodham Clinton soldiered on despite her dwindling hopes.
Clinton was vowing to continue the fight through the last primaries in early June as polls opened across Kentucky, a state she was expected to win by a wide margin. Obama was favored in Oregon, where supporters delivered the largest crowd of his campaign on Sunday in Portland.
Regardless of who prevails in those states, Obama was assured that he would be able to claim the largest share of pledged delegates who could be won in the long slog of votes since January.
The Illnois senator's campaign is touting the pledged delegate milestone as a big step toward ending the epic nomination battle with Clinton.
Having a majority of pledged delegates could help Obama's case with undecided superdelegates - the party insiders who are not tied to primary or caucus results - to pick up the pace of their endorsements. Superdelegate support is crucial because neither candidate will have enough delegates from the remaining primaries to clinch the nomination without them.
Including superdelegates, Obama had 1,915 delegates to Clinton's 1,721 going into yesterday's primaries in which 103 delegates are at stake in the two states. By early today, Obama could be just 50 to 75 delegates short of the total 2,026 needed to nominate a candidate at the party's national convention in Denver in late August.
Republican John McCain has already been targeting Obama in his campaign speeches as his likely opponent in the November election. On Monday the longtime Arizona senator accused Obama of inexperience and reckless judgment for saying Iran does not pose the same serious threat to the United States as the Soviet Union did in its day.
Obama has been increasingly presenting himself as the nominee as he looks ahead to the battleground swing states in the general election.
Since Iowa, Obama has won 1,610.5 pledged delegates - leaving him just 17 short of a majority of the 3,253 pledged delegates up for grabs.
Agencies
(China Daily 05/21/2008 page24)
