"This is a pretty delicate situation for the Obama campaign. They're obviously going to do everything they can here to make sure Sen. Clinton has a soft landing at the end of this campaign," said Bill Carrick, a Los Angeles-based Democratic strategist.
Still, he said, "clearly calling attention to having a majority of the pledged delegates suggests that, mathematically, the campaign is coming to an end."
Setting the appearance in Iowa, Carrick added, helps Obama "on the big symbolic level. His candidacy took off like a rocket ship after winning the Iowa caucuses. There's a symmetry between the start in Iowa and the end of the [Democratic] campaign. On a more practical level, Iowa is clearly a swing state in the November election, and Sen. Obama's going there because he wants to reinforce the support he has in Iowa and start reaching out to swing voters there."
On Monday, Obama, speaking before a crowd of 1,700 in a high school gymnasium in Billings, appeared to be practicing the delicate art of portraying himself as the presumptive Democratic nominee while not discounting Clinton's candidacy. Ahead are "a number of contests, including Montana, before we are able to secure the nomination," he said. He added that Clinton "has run a magnificent race and she is still working hard, as I am, for these last primary contests."
The Democratic rivals are expected to post split results in today's primaries, with Clinton heavily favored in Kentucky and Obama thought to be well ahead in Oregon.
Yet even if his showing is weak, Obama should be able to amass enough pledged delegates -- the delegates awarded to candidates based on popular voting -- for the majority.
That doesn't mean Obama will have clinched the nomination. He needs to win more delegates to cross that threshold. But his campaign believes that Obama, once an underdog, will have reached an impressive mark.
So far, Obama has won 1,610.5 pledged delegates, versus 1,443.5 for Clinton, according to the Associated Press.
Because the total number of pledged delegates is 3,253, party officials say, a candidate needs 1,627.5 to secure a majority. Obama is 17 short of that mark. He should easily pick up that number in Oregon and Kentucky, where a total of 103 delegates are at stake.
