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WORLD> America
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Obama claims majority of pledged delegates
(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-05-21 11:46 Louisville, Kentucky - Barack Obama stepped to the brink of victory in the US Democratic presidential race Tuesday night despite a lopsided loss in the Kentucky primary, moving within 100 delegates of the total needed to claim the prize at the party convention this summer.
"You have put us within reach of the Democratic nomination," he told cheering supporters in Iowa, the overwhelmingly white state that launched him, a black, first-term senator from Illinois, on his improbable path to victory last January. Obama lavished praise on Hillary Rodham Clinton, his rival in a race unlike any other, and accused Republican John McCain of a campaign run by lobbyists. "You are Democrats who are tired of being divided, Republicans who no longer recognize the party that runs Washington, independents who are hungry for change," he said, speaking to a crowd on the grounds of the Iowa Capitol in Des Moines as well as the millions around the country who will elect the nation's 44th president in November. Despite losing Kentucky to Clinton by a margin of 65 percent to 30 percent, Obama picked up at least 14 delegates in the state, she at least 37. That gave him 1,931 out of the 2,026 needed. The former first lady has 1,755 in their marathon race -- a black man running against a woman -- that has shattered voter turnout records in state after state. The two rivals also collided in Oregon's unique vote-by-mail primary. Obama said the night's contests gave him a majority of the delegates elected in all 56 primaries and caucuses combined -- as distinct from nearly 800 superdelegates who hold the balance of power at the convention. "We still have work to do to in the remaining states, where we will compete for every delegate available," he said in an e-mail sent to supporters. "But tonight, I want to thank you for everything you have done to take us this far -- farther than anyone predicted, expected or even believed possible." Clinton, the one-time front-runner in the race, said she was in it still. "This is one of the closest races for a party's nomination in modern history," the former first lady told supporters celebrating her Kentucky victory. "We're winning the popular vote," she said, despite figures from competitive contests that show otherwise. "I'm more determined than ever to see that every vote is cast and every ballot is counted." Even so, she commended Obama, adding, "while we continue to go toe-to-toe for this nomination, we do see eye-to-eye when it comes to uniting our party to elect a Democratic president this fall." She also said Michigan and Florida Democrats deserve to have their votes counted, a reference to the lingering controversy surrounding primaries in both states held in defiance of Democratic National Committee rules. Party officials are scheduled to meet later this month to consider how -- or whether -- to seat all or part of the states' delegates. Obama's speech was part a summons to the voters to embrace change, part attempt to coax Clinton's supporters to his side as the nominating contest draws to a close. "We have had our disagreements during this campaign, but we all admire her courage, her commitment and her perseverance," he said. "No matter how this primary ends, Senator Clinton has shattered myths and broken barriers and changed the America in which my daughters and yours will come of age." |
