With His Big Win in Oregon, Obama on the Brink of Officially Claiming the Nomination

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Barack Obama stepped to the brink of victory in the Democratic presidential race Tuesday night, defeating Hillary Rodham Clinton in the Oregon primary and 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 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.

Clinton countered with a lopsided win in Kentucky, a victory with scant political value in a race moving inexorably in Obama’s direction.

The former first lady vowed to remain in the race, telling supporters, “I’m more than determined than ever to see that every vote is cast and every ballot is counted.

But in a sign of confidence on the front-runner’s part, party officials said discussions were under way to send Paul Tewes, a top Obama campaign aide, to the Democratic National Committee to oversee operations for the fall campaign.

And in a fresh sign that their race was coming to an end, Clinton and Obama praised one another and pledged a united party for the general election.

“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,” said Clinton, whose supporters Obama will need if he is to end eight years of Republican rule in the White House.

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