Barack Obama still has to persuade a few superdelegates with just 64 short of the 2,026 needed to clinch the Democratic presidential nomination.
Barack Obama has an overall total of 1,962 delegates, including endorsements from superdelegates. Clinton has 1,779, including superdelegates
By: Sara Smith
May 22, 2008 12:19 PM GMT
Barack Obama is lavishing attention on Florida and its wreckage of a presidential primary while minding his manners with Hillary Rodham Clinton -- a rival he now can afford to praise.Obama detoured Wednesday from the campaign for the three remaining primaries -- Puerto Rico, Montana, South Dakota -- to rally in a state where its renegade primary was disallowed. "Last night, I was in Iowa because we marked a significant moment in our campaign where we achieved a majority of the pledged delegates that are assigned in this election. And so we are at the threshold of being able to attain this nomination," Obama told supporters at a Tampa, Fla., rally. Clinton, too, was in Florida, pressing to narrow her gap with Obama by having delegates counted from its contest in January. The Illinois senator was just 64 delegates short of the 2,026 needed to clinch the nomination after two superdelegate endorsements Wednesday and a pair of primaries the night before. Clinton thrashed him in Kentucky; he answered by winning Oregon. Obama also secured a majority of the pledged delegates won in primaries and caucuses across the country -- a milestone that could help him persuade more superdelegates to endorse him. Mississippi Democratic Party Chairman Wayne Dowdy and Connecticut Rep. Joe Courtney, whose district voted for Clinton in the state's Feb. 5 primary won by Obama, padded the Illinois senator's lead with superdelegates by declaring their support. Superdelegates are party insiders who are not tied to the outcome of state contests. Obama picked up another big labor endorsement, from the United Mine Workers of America. Clinton gained up a superdelegate, too -- Craig Bashein, of Ohio. Although Obama won most groups of voters in Oregon, other recent primaries including Kentucky's have been polarizing, with large numbers of his supporters and Clinton's digging in behind their candidate and saying they would not vote for the other one in the fall campaign against Republican John McCain. "If that holds true, then it is a problem," said former Colorado Sen. Gary Hart, who experienced devastating party divisions as Democrat George McGovern's campaign manager in 1972. "But I don't think that's going to hold true." Clinton won at least 56 delegates from Kentucky and Oregon and Obama won at least 43, according to an analysis of election returns by The Associated Press. All 51 delegates from Kentucky were awarded but there were still four of 52 to be allocated in Oregon.
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