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He's not declaring victory in the Democratic primaries, but if you listen to Barack Obama, you get a clear sense he's more than ready for a fall fight with John McCain.

Sen. Barack Obama told an Oregon crowd Sunday that they were the reason he was still standing.

"Everybody is surprised that I am standing here. Let's face it, nobody thought a 46-year-old black guy named Barack Obama was going to be the Democratic nominee. The reason this has worked is because of you. You decided you wanted to take your government back, and that is what we are going to be fighting for all the way through November," the Illinois senator told the crowd at a rally in Oregon on Sunday.

An interesting choice of words from a candidate who lately has been careful to not proclaim victory in his long and bitter battle with New York Sen. Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination.

"Sen. Clinton and I have had a terrific contest, and she has been a formidable candidate," Obama said Sunday while being questioned by reporters. His choice of tense is telling.

Obama's choice of where he holds primary night campaign rallies is also a sign that he's looking ahead to the general election.

Last Tuesday, as Clinton was racking up a landslide victory in the West Virginia primary, Obama held a campaign event in Missouri, which long ago held its primary. But Missouri is what's known as a battleground or swing state, a state that could go either way in the general election.

On Tuesday, Obama will hold a rally in Iowa, which kicked off the primary season with its January 3 caucuses. Obama won that contest, helping to propel him to Democratic frontrunner status. Iowa is also another battleground state (President Bush took it by 10,000 votes in 2004) that the Democrats would love to win this November.

Obama will also point out Tuesday night that he's won half the pledged delegates. There are 3,253 pledged delegates, and even if Obama has a poor showing in the Kentucky and Oregon primaries, he should easily top the 1,627 delegates needed to make that claim.

Pledged delegates are those won by the candidates in the primary and caucus contests, as opposed to the 795 superdelegates, whose votes are not tied to any primary or caucus results. Superdelegates are Democratic governors, members of Congress and party officials.

While winning half the pledged delegates is nice, Obama needs 2,026 of them to clinch the nomination.

Since neither candidate is expected to win that many delegates by the end of the primary season on June 3, the superdelegates will probably be needed to put either Obama or Clinton over the top.

"You know, we thought it [Iowa] was a terrific way to kind of bring things full circle. We still have some contests left, but if Kentucky and Oregon go as we hope, then we think we will have a majority of pledged delegates at that point, and that's a pretty significant mark. That means that after contests in every state, or almost every state and the territories, that we will have received the majority of the delegates that are assigned by voters," Obama told reporters Sunday.

But even though he leads Clinton in delegates won, states won and the popular vote in the primary and caucus contests held so far this campaign season, Obama says Tuesday's declaration in Iowa doesn't mean the primary battle is over.

"It doesn't mean we declare victory, because I won't be the nominee until we have enough, a combination of both pledged delegates and superdelegates, to hit the mark. But what it does mean is that voters have given us the majority of delegates that they can assign. And obviously that is what this primary and caucus process is about," he said.

And Obama's campaign for the primaries continues. He's spending Monday in Montana, which, along with South Dakota, closes out the primary calendar on June 3.

If the battle for the Democratic presidential nomination is almost over, no one's telling Clinton.

source: washington.com