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Obama says has reached delegate milestone in Democratic race
(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-05-21 11:51 DES MOINES - Democrat Barack Obama told supporters on Tuesday he was close to winning the party's US presidential nomination and had secured a majority of the delegates elected in state-by-state nominating contests.
Obama, who has fought a grueling battle with Hillary Clinton for the right to run against Republican John McCain in November's election, sounded a victorious note after contests in Kentucky and Oregon. Obama told a cheering crowd in Iowa -- the state that propelled his underdog candidacy by giving him a win in the first nominating contest in January -- that the nomination was now in sight. "We have returned to Iowa with a majority of delegates elected by the American people," said the Illinois senator. "You have put us within reach of the Democratic nomination for president of the United States." Obama lost in Kentucky on Tuesday but was aiming for victory in Oregon. Neither Obama nor Clinton, a New York senator, will have the number of delegates needed to claim the nomination when the state-by-state contests end on June 3 with contests in Montana and South Dakota. But Obama expects superdelegates -- party leaders and elected officials who have their own vote at the party's convention in August -- to line up behind him now. Some Democrats have worried that the Obama-Clinton duel may have split supporters and damaged the party's chances in November. But Obama said the 15-month race had proven Democrats were energized and united. "We need this unity and this energy in the months to come, because while our primary has been long and hard-fought, the hardest and most important part of our journey still lies ahead," he said. |
