McCain prods Obama to visit Iraq

He said he believed the winner of the race should be known by the end of the day Tuesday, and that he believes he will be the victor. By Tuesday evening, the three remaining primaries, in Puerto Rico, Montana and South Dakota, will be over. That also will be three days after the Saturday meeting of party officials in Washington to resolve a dispute over how to account for Democratic delegates from Michigan and Florida, two states whose primary results are considered unofficial because the contests were held earlier on the calendar than party rules allowed.

"At that point, all the information will be in," Obama said. He signaled he was counting on the party insiders known as superdelegates to provide the decisive support, saying that "they will make their decisions pretty quickly" after the final primaries.

He also brushed aside the possibility that a lawsuit or a floor challenge by Clinton at the Democratic National Convention in August could block his nomination. "If we've got the number of delegates to secure the nomination, then I'm the nominee," he said.

Earlier in the day, he focused on education policy. He appeared at a school in Thornton, Colo., north of Denver, on the last day of his three-day swing through Western battleground states.

Obama reserved special attention for the federal No Child Left Behind law that, critics say, has placed unfunded federal burdens on public schools.

"Forcing our teachers, our principals, and our schools to accomplish all of this without the resources they need is wrong," Obama said.

Clinton, appearing in Kyle, S.D., made the case that she remained a serious contender for the presidency. "I view my run for president as a solemn obligation," she said, appearing before about 300 people outside of a school.

"I don't run for president because I need any more publicity or because I need the adulation or the celebrity or to live in the White House again," she added. "I run because I believe we can do so much better in our country."

Clinton, after reviewing some of her policy positions, turned to her contest with Obama and described the race as still very tight. "It is so close that neither of us have the number of delegates needed to be president," she said.

Making her familiar argument, Clinton said her primary wins in many of the biggest states showed that she would be the more formidable Democratic candidate in November.

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maeve.reston@latimes.com

scott.martelle@latimes.com

Times staff writer Louise Roug also contributed to this report from South Dakota. Reston reported from Nevada and Los Angeles, and Martelle from Colorado.