Barack Obama will take a major step toward the Democratic presidential nomination when Oregon and Kentucky vote on Tuesday, but rival Hillary Clinton still hopes to spoil the party. After Tuesday's results, Obama will be able to claim a majority of pledged delegates won in the lengthy state-by-state fight with Clinton.
It is a landmark he hopes will signal the beginning of the end of their gruelling race to contest November's presidential election against Republican John McCain. Voting ends in Kentucky at 7 pm EDT (2300 GMT) and Oregon's mail balloting will end at 8 pm PDT/11 pm EDT (0300 GMT on Wednesday). Results are expected shortly after. While Obama, an Illinois senator, could still be about 50 to 75 delegates short of the 2,026 needed to win the nomination at the Democratic convention in August, he hopes the mark will send more undecided superdelegates - party officials who can back any candidate - flooding his way.
"A clear majority of elected delegates will send an unmistakable message - the people have spoken and they are ready for change," Obama campaign manager David Plouffe said in an e-mail message to supporters.
But a newly formed women's political action committee, WomenCount, took out a full page advertisement in Tuesday's New York Times to encourage Clinton, a New York senator, to stay in the race. "Not so fast," it said. "Hillary's voice is our voice, and she's speaking for us."
Meanwhile, the world's most famous stock market investor, Warren Buffett, said he would be happy with either Democrat sitting in the White House. The Berkshire Hathaway chief told both Clinton and Obama he would back them before they launched their competing presidential bids, putting him in an awkward position once they both decided to run.
"I have been supporting both of them ever since. I will be very happy if either one of them is president of the United States," he said at a news conference in Switzerland. "I think they are outstanding candidates and both would make outstanding presidents."
Clinton, who has ignored Obama's almost unassailable lead in delegates for weeks and shrugged off calls to quit the race before the last of the primary elections on June 3, has vowed to keep campaigning. She said superdelegates should reconsider the race because she would be a stronger foe for McCain, an Arizona senator. Her victories in big states like Pennsylvania and Ohio gave her a broader base of support than Obama, she said. Geraldine Ferraro, a New York Democrat who in 1984 became the country's first woman vice presidential candidate of a major party, said on NBC's "Today" show that Clinton was the victim of some sexist campaigning.
Obama is favoured to win in Oregon, where opinion polls give him a lead between 4 percentage points and double-digits, and Clinton is a big favourite in Kentucky. The two states have a combined 103 delegates at stake on Tuesday.
Obama will celebrate Tuesday's returns at a rally in Iowa, a general election battleground where he made his breakthrough with a big win in the first Democratic contest on January 3. A delegate count by MSNBC gives Obama 1,901 delegates to Clinton's 1,724. After Tuesday, just three more contests will remain with 86 delegates at stake. Slightly more than 200 superdelegates remain uncommitted.
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