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WASHINGTON: Democratic White House hopeful Barack
Obama is bidding this week to reach a symbolically potent milestone
in his nominating battle with Hillary Clinton and take the fight to
Republican John McCain.
When Kentucky and Oregon hold
their primaries on Tuesday, the Illinois senator expects to clinch a
majority of elected Democratic delegates and put another nail in the
coffin of Clinton’s own presidential dream.
Obama is not planning to spend
the election night in either state, heading instead to Iowa—the
scene of his triumph in the year’s debut Democratic
contest—before spending the rest of the week in Florida.
And in recent days, the
politician bidding to be America’s first black president has
already been looking past his long and bruising nominating contest
with Clinton by going on the offensive against McCain.
On Sunday, during a stop in
Oregon, Obama fought on the election battleground of pensions as he
accused the presumptive Republican nominee of planning to jeopardize
Social Security benefits through privatization.
“Let me be clear: privatizing
Social Security was a bad idea when [President] George W. Bush
proposed it. It’s a bad idea today,” Obama said.
“But in George Bush and John
McCain’s Washington, the message to the middle class is:
‘you’re on your own’,” he said, proposing to raise taxes for
higher earners to guarantee future pension payments.
The McCain campaign responded:
“With his lack of experience, it should be no surprise that Barack
Obama’s response to the problems facing Social Security is to
raise Social Security taxes, while making misinformed partisan
attacks.”
Polls show Obama leading in
Oregon, where 52 delegates are up for grabs. Clinton is ahead in
Kentucky, a state with 51 delegates and a similar demographic to
West Virginia, where she won by a landslide last week.
Obama’s campaign says he needs
just 17 more pledged delegates—won through state contests—to
reach a majority of 1,627. While that would represent a watershed in
the Democratic race, that does not count “superdelegates,” party
leaders who can vote for the nominee of their choice.
Including superdelegates, the
winning nomination line is 2,025.
--AFP
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