Obama pushes to claim victory Tuesday

Pivoting to the general election
In an elaborately coordinated evening that will symbolize the shift from the primary to the general election, Mr. Obama will deliver his victory speech at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, the location, not coincidentally, of the Republican convention in August.

The strategy, one adviser said, was to claim the nomination Tuesday night and Wednesday morning start putting his full focus on Senator John McCain, starting with a speech at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, where Mr. McCain lit into Mr. Obama on Monday.

Mr. Obama’s advisers estimated that, factoring in the results in Montana and South Dakota, where he appeared to be in a strong position, he needed about 25 delegates to reach the 2,118 needed to win the nomination. He gained endorsements on Monday that will give him 5.5 more superdelegate votes (the half vote is from Florida), and Mr. Obama’s advisers said they would spend Tuesday rushing more superdelegates — the elected Democrats and party leaders who get berths at the convention — onto his train.

“We’re trying to get the number as quickly as possible,” Mr. Obama’s campaign manager, David Plouffe, said on Monday. “We are trying to convince as many as possible to come out tomorrow.”

Mr. Obama’s aides were wary of trying to raise expectations about his performance. Still, asked if Mr. Obama would win enough superdelegates Tuesday to put him in position to claim the nomination, Mr. Plouffe responded: “We are trying to. I don’t know if we can get there.”

Banking on ‘a lot of movement’
Senator Claire McCaskill of Missouri, a supporter of Mr. Obama, said she had spoken to about a dozen uncommitted superdelegates on Monday on Mr. Obama’s behalf. “We are hopeful and optimistic that a lot of movement will be tomorrow, but you can’t count on it until it happens,” she said.

Representative Jason Altmire, Democrat of Pennsylvania, said he wanted to give Mrs. Clinton her due until at least Wednesday. But if the race remained fully engaged by week’s end, he said, she would lose her support from superdelegates.

“We want to hear from Senator Clinton; she deserves the right to make her statement,” Mr. Altmire said Monday night. “But I’m not fine with it proceeding. I think it’s incredibly damaging at the end of the process for it to continue on.”

Mr. Obama spent part of Monday working the phones, as did surrogates, aides and party officials, urging the uncommitted superdelegates to sign on.

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Asked what his final sales pitch was, Mr. Obama said, “The sooner that we can bring the party together, the sooner we can start focusing on John McCain in November.”

In a campaign stop in Michigan on Monday, Mr. Obama lavished praise upon Mrs. Clinton, in what aides said was a signal intended to set the tone for how his supporters should treat her in the coming days.

“Senator Clinton has run an outstanding race; she is an outstanding public servant,” Mr. Obama told voters at a forum in Troy, Mich. He added, “She and I will be working together in November.”

To that, the crowd of Democrats cheered.

This article, Obama Pushes Effort to Claim Victory After Tuesday’s Voting, first appeared in The New York Times.

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