Sen. Barack Obama is expected to reach a significant milestone today as he marches toward the Democratic nomination for president: a majority of pledged delegates at stake in all the primaries and caucuses.
The Illinois senator will still be short of the overall number of delegates needed to clinch the nomination, unless he were to suddenly receive an avalanche of endorsements from the party and elected officials known as superdelegates. But Obama’s campaign is touting the delegate milestone as a big step in defeating rival Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Obama, who overtook Clinton in superdelegate endorsements a little more than a week ago, picked up six more Monday. Clinton added none.
One of the endorsements was from Sen. Robert Byrd of West Virginia. Byrd is the longest serving member of the U.S. Senate.
Obama goes into today’s contests in Oregon and Kentucky with 1,610.5 pledged delegates won in primaries and caucuses. He needs 17 more to reach a majority of the 3,253 pledged delegates available. Clinton has 1,443.5 pledged delegates, according to the latest tally by the Associated Press.
Obama has a total of 1,915 delegates overall, including endorsements from superdelegates. Clinton has 1,721, according to the latest AP count. To secure the nomination, a candidate needs 2,026 delegates.
Race is tight in today’s Oregon primary
Obama has a slight lead in Oregon, while Clinton has a wide lead in Kentucky, two polls show Monday on the eve of the states’ primaries.
In Oregon, Obama has 45 percent to Clinton’s 41 percent. Clinton has more than a 25-point lead in Kentucky, 51 percent to 25 percent.
Oregon and Kentucky have a total of 103 delegates at stake today.
Suffolk University conducted both surveys, each involving interviews with 600 likely Democratic voters. The polls have a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.
Obama comments show inexperience, McCain says
Republican Sen. John McCain accused Obama of inexperience and reckless judgment for saying Iran does not pose the same serious threat to the United States as the Soviet Union did in its day.
The likely GOP presidential nominee made the criticism Monday in Chicago, Obama’s home turf.
“Such a statement betrays the depth of Senator Obama’s inexperience and reckless judgment. These are very serious deficiencies for an American president to possess,” McCain said at the restaurant industry’s annual meeting.
He was referring to comments Obama made Sunday in Pendleton, Ore.: “Iran, Cuba, Venezuela — these countries are tiny compared to the Soviet Union. They don’t pose a serious threat to us the way the Soviet Union posed a threat to us. And yet we were willing to talk to the Soviet Union at the time when they were saying, ‘We’re going to wipe you off the planet.’”
McCain listed the dangers he sees from Iran: It provides deadly explosive devices used to kill U.S. soldiers in Iraq, sponsors terrorists in Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East and is committed to Israel’s destruction.
“The threat the government of Iran poses is anything but tiny,” McCain said.
Obama, responding to McCain, said, “Let me be absolutely clear: Iran is a grave threat.” But the Soviet Union posed an added threat, he said. “The Soviet Union had thousands of nuclear weapons, and Iran doesn’t have a single one.”
Obama said the threat from Iran had grown as a result of the U.S. war in Iraq.
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