Obama poised to make history

Washington: It's over. Almost.

South Dakota and Montana held their primaries on Tuesday, the last two contests in the fight between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination - a rivalry that began exactly five months ago to the day in the Iowa caucus. And all signs are that Obama could clinch the nomination within days of the final primaries.

Obama needed just 44 delegates to get the 2,118 needed to secure the nomination at the Democrats' national convention this summer. And on the final day of campaigning before the two primaries, the Illinois senator worked furiously to win enough superdelegates - the party leaders and activists - to nail down the nomination even before the polls close in South Dakota and Montana.

One such superdelegate will be House Majority Leader Jim Clyburn, who confirmed yesterday that he would endorse Obama and would ask the other superdelegates from his home state to do the same.

Symbolic celebration

Obama had made plans to celebrate tonight in Minneapolis, a symbolic gesture that some experts view as the end of his contest with Clinton and the beginning of his general election campaign against John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee.

Minneapolis hosts the Republican national convention this summer, and Obama's presence in the city on the night when he could possibly clinch his party's nomination, was likely to be "a shot across the bow" at McCain, said Bruce Buchanan, a government professor at the University of Texas at Austin.

"All the signs are that this is over for Hillary, so the general election begins," Buchanan said.

Moreover, Minnesota, with a major US Senate campaign this fall in addition to the presidential contest, will be a pivotal state for Democrats in November. "So this is a great place for Obama to wrap up the nomination," said Darrell West, a political science professor at Brown University.

To claim the nomination for herself, Clinton would need the support of some 200 superdelegates, an unlikely feat. And while the New York senator gave no indication of calling it quits even after the primaries today, there were widespread news reports that her campaign was closing up shop.

If Obama succeeds, it will mark the culmination of a remarkable campaign, one in which an untested 46-year-old political newcomer defeated the New York senator and the Clinton dynasty with not only a message of hope and inspiration but unprecedented fund-raising muscle and deft organisational skills. And on the eve of the final day of that campaign, Obama sought to bind up some of the wounds from the bitter primary campaign, telling voters in South Dakota that Clinton and he will be "working together in November".

He told reporters yesterday he has asked Clinton for a meeting on her terms "once the dust settles" from their race.