AP: Obama Just 64 Delegates From Victory [View All]

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http://www.suntimes.com/news/politics/obama/962840,ob052108.article

Obama just 64 delegates from victory
May 21, 2008 Recommend (3)
FROM ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON — Close to securing the Democratic nomination, Barack Obama lavished attention on Florida and its wreckage of a presidential primary while minding his manners with Hillary Rodham Clinton — a rival he now can afford to praise.

Obama detoured Wednesday from the campaign for the three remaining primaries — Puerto Rico, Montana, South Dakota — to rally in a state where its renegade primary was disallowed.

‘‘It is good to be back in Florida. It’s good to be back. I know you guys have been holding down the fort,’’ Obama told supporters at a Tampa, Fla., rally.

Clinton, too, was in Florida, pressing to narrow her gap with Obama by having delegates counted from its contest in January.

The former first lady told supporters in Florida that they ‘‘learned the hard way what happens when your votes aren’t counted and the candidate with fewer votes is declared the winner,’’ a reference to the state’s disputed presidential vote that gave George W. Bush the White House. ‘‘The lesson of 2000 here in Florida is crystal clear: If any votes aren’t counted, the will of the people isn’t realized and our democracy is diminished.’’

The Illinois senator was just 64 delegates short of the 2,026 needed to clinch the nomination, after two superdelegate endorsements Wednesday and a pair of primaries the night before. Clinton thrashed him in Kentucky; he answered by winning Oregon. Obama also secured a majority of the pledged delegates won in primaries and caucuses across the country — a milestone that could help him persuade more superdelegates to endorse him.

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