US Democrat Senator Barack Obama stood on the brink of history on Tuesday, within reach of becoming the country’s first black presidential nominee after a twisting, emotional and divisive battle with Senator Hillary Clinton.
As voters in the final two states, Montana and South Dakota, wrapped up the coast-to-coast Democratic nominating marathon, Clinton faced the demise of her own historic quest to be the first woman president.
The only questions remaining in the Democratic race were whether Obama would reach the winning post of 2,118 delegates by late Tuesday and whether Clinton would formally fold her campaign and endorse her fierce rival.
PHOTO: AFP
Regardless, Obama, 46, planned to train his full fire on potential general election rival Senator John McCain, with a daring foray into the same Minnesota sports arena where Republicans will crown their nominee in September.
Clinton was meanwhile headed back to her home state in New York, prompting speculation she would abandon her campaign, which has garnered nearly 17 million votes, at a “celebration” event in Manhattan on Tuesday night.
Obama, who has scaled the heights of US politics after just three years in the Senate, already had an eye on healing his party after a nominating duel that cleaved it down the middle.
He divulged some of the content of his congratulatory telephone call to the former first lady after her thumping win in the Puerto Rico primary on Sunday, which boosted her morale but could not dent his control of the race.
“I emphasized to her what an extraordinary race that she’s run and said that there aren’t too many people who understand exactly how hard she’s been working — I’m one of them,” Obama told reporters in Michigan.
He said he told his 60-year-old rival that “once the dust settled” he was ready to meet her at a time and place of her choosing.
Conflicting signals escaped the Clinton camp on Monday, with some reports saying advance workers who set up campaign events would not be needed after Tuesday and that staff had been told to file expense reports.
Former president Bill Clinton perhaps foreshadowed his departure from this campaign trail, after two White House terms and his wife’s grueling campaign, with a valedictory tone in South Dakota.
“I want to say also that this may be the last day I’m ever involved in a campaign of this kind,” he said. “I thought I was out of politics, till Hillary decided to run. But it has been one of the greatest honors of my life to be able to go around and campaign for her for president.”
But aides traveling with Clinton played down reports that the former first lady would exit the race on Tuesday, even as others pointed to a conference between Clinton and top advisors at her New York home.
At a rally in South Dakota, she herself said she would focus on winning over superdelegates, top party officials who can vote how they like at the party’s August convention in Denver.
“Tomorrow is the last day of the primaries and the beginning of a new phase in the campaign,” Clinton was quoted as saying in the Washington Post.
After Tuesday, it was up to the superdelegates to decide on a nominee, she said.
“I will be spending the coming days making my case to those delegates,” she said.
But there were indications that nearly 200 still undeclared superdelegates were beginning to accelerate their slide towards Obama.
He picked up 4.5 superdelegate votes on Monday to Clinton’s two, while James Clyburn, an influential African-American leader and major force in Congress, was due to follow on Tuesday.
And Senator Claire McCaskill of Missouri, an Obama supporter, was reported as saying she had spoken to about a dozen uncommitted superdelegates and expected “a lot of movement” on Tuesday.
Obama was just 42.5 delegates short of the 2,118 now needed to capture the nomination, after a contentious deal was thrashed out on Saturday over the renegade primaries in Florida and Michigan.
A total of 31 delegates was available in Tuesday’s contests.
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