KEY POINTS:
Washington - A new front opened in Barack Obama's battle to clinch the nomination when he asked uncommitted Democratic officials, known as superdelegates, to accept that the race is over and to focus on winning the November election.
"We have a clear path to
victory," he said. "But now is the time for each one of us to step up and do what we can to close out this primary. "Mr Obama's message to the superdelegates was that his crushing victory in North Carolina and narrow loss in Indiana proved that he is a resilient candidate who can take a pummelling and bounce back. He had weathered the storm whipped up by his former pastor, Jeremiah Wright, going haywire in front of the national media.
He had not pandered to voters in the last difficult six weeks of campaigning, as Hillary Clinton had done with her offer of a much-criticised tax cut on petrol.
One of Mr Obama's most powerful arguments is that black voters have turned against Mrs Clinton, which could be fatal in the presidential election. Black voters backed him by a 91-7 per cent margin while white voters, who comprise 60 percent of North Carolina's voters, backed Mrs Clinton by 61 to 37 per cent.
Six Democratic contests remain to be fought, but a newly confident Mr Obama wants to turn his attention to the states he needs to win in the election, his strategist David Axelrod said.
While the Democrats were focused on the nomination struggle, the Republican candidate, John McCain, has "run free for some time now," Mr Axelrod said. "I don't think we're going to spend time solely in primary states," he said. "We have multiple tasks here."First Mr Obama is heading to Oregon, where he is expected to do well, before going to West Virginia and Kentucky, where Mrs Clinton is tipped to win.
In his North Carolina victory speech on Tuesday, Mr Obama spoke of his pride in "the country that made it possible for my mother n a single parent who had to go on food stamps at one point to send my sister and me to the best schools in the country on scholarships. "As far as the media is concerned, Mr Obama is on the brink of declaring victory.
Joe Scarborough, a conservative TV host for MSNBC, threw objectivity to the wind when he described his excitement over Mr Obama. A bambi-like politician with little national experience and the unlikely name of "Barack Hussein Obama" had "defied gravity" and transformed the political landscape, he said.
Mr Obama's supporters are as enthusiastic as ever, a factor that the uncommitted delegates are weighing.
Some superdelegates from California are reportedly desperate to drop Mrs Clinton and are looking for the opportunity to do so.
Mr McCain is facing difficulties of his own. More than 20 per cent of those who voted in the Republican primary in Indiana said they would prefer another candidate to him, including Ron Paul, the libertarian, who attracted 7.6 per cent.
- INDEPENDENT