BARACK OBAMA is poised to secure the Democratic nomination soon after tomorrow's final primaries as party leaders step up pressure for a swift end to the nominating contest.
Democratic party chairman Howard Dean said yesterday that, after Montana and South Dakota vote tomorrow, the remaining 200 superdelegates must make their choice. "We don't want to go to the convention, have a big fight at the convention, and lose the presidency," Mr Dean told ABC News. "And if those folks will say who they're for sometime over the next couple of weeks, then we'll know who the nominee is."
Campaign spokesman Robert Gibbs said yesterday he was confident that superdelegates - elected officials and other senior party figures - would put Mr Obama over the top this week. "If not Tuesday, I think it will be fairly soon," he said.
Puerto Rico voted yesterday for Hillary Clinton but Mr Obama is the favourite to win in Montana and South Dakota tomorrow. In a new TV ad airing today, Mrs Clinton claims that more people have voted for her than for any candidate in a nominating race in history.
At a long and sometimes rowdy meeting in Washington on Saturday, the party agreed to recognise all delegates from Florida and Michigan, which held primaries earlier than allowed, but to give each just half a vote. The deal left Mr Obama about 63 delegates short of the majority needed for the nomination, most of which he expects to pick up in the remaining primaries. Saturday's decision on Florida and Michigan strengthens the former first lady's claim to have won more popular votes than Mr Obama but there is no sign that superdelegates are rallying to her.
Mrs Clinton's campaign is unhappy with the way Michigan's delegates have been divided, claiming that Mr Obama has been awarded four delegates that should be hers.
Mr Obama announced at the weekend that he has resigned from the Chicago church of which he has been a member for 20 years, following last week's sermon there by a Catholic priest who mocked Mrs Clinton and suggested that she was a white supremacist.
Earlier in the campaign, Mr Obama denounced his former pastor, Jeremiah Wright, whose statements about race and American foreign policy had become controversial.
Mr Obama said he was leaving the church because he did not want to answer for everything that was said there and to free the church from the scrutiny associated with a presidential campaign. "I have no idea how it will impact my presidential campaign. But I know it's the right thing to do for the church and for our family," he said.
Mr Obama said he had been surprised by the intense political scrutiny of his church and religious beliefs. "I didn't anticipate my fairly conventional Christian faith being subject to such challenge and such scrutiny. Initially with e-mails suggesting I was a Muslim, later with the controversy that Trinity generated."