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Obama Gains Momentum, Sets Focus on McCain; John Edwards Praises Barack


Barack Obama has turned his focus to John McCain since winning over more superdelegates than Hillary Clinton.

Senator and presidential hopeful Barack Obama has now turned his focus to Republican White House candidate John McCain since winning over more delegates than democratic rival Hillary Clinton this past week.

Obama has said that McCain would continue the “failed policies” of President George W. Bush.

Recently Obama has received more ground on Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination with more endorsements, more delegates, and has even received strong praise from former Democratic rival John Edwards.

“Let’s assume Barack is the nominee, because it’s certainly headed in that direction,” Edwards told NBC’s “Today” show. “I think right now, Barack Obama has a better chance because it looks like he’s going to be the nominee. But I think he has, what he brings to the table is the capacity, number one, to unite the Democratic party, number two, to bring in new voters, to bring in people who haven’t been involved in the process over a long period of time and to get people excited about this change.”

However strong the the praise was, Edwards goes on to say he wasn’t making any official endorsements yet. “First of all, I think the value of these endorsements, including mine, are greatly inflated,” Edwards says in regards to why he hasn’t made an official endorsement yet. “I don’t have some extraordinary view about what effect I would have, no matter when I did something. And, and, number two, I really think it’s important to allow voters and this democratic process to work.”

Edwards went on to state “Barack Obama has done pretty well without any endorsement from John Edwards.”

These praises, along with nine superdelegates support of Obama to Clinton’s only two, and the very slim chances of Clinton unlikely being able to erase Obama’s 1,859.5 to 1,698 lead in delegates, has many thinking Obama now has the momentum needed to take the democratic nominee.

Now, along with his newfound momentum, Obama, 46, has largely ignored Clinton during his first campaign stop since taking a commanding lead in the Democratic race on Tuesday by winning a primary election in North Carolina and narrowly losing Indiana.

But Obama did direct his focus at John McCain saying he had fundamental differences with McCain on issues like the Iraq war, taxes, gasoline prices and health care.

“John McCain wants to continue George Bush’s war in Iraq, losing thousands of lives and spending tens of billions of dollars a month to fight a war that isn’t making us safe,” Obama said in Beaverton, Oregon.

“Senator McCain is running for president to double down on George Bush’s failed policies. I am running to change them and that is what will be the fundamental difference in this election when I am the Democratic nominee for president.”

Still, while Obama has turned to McCain, there is the issue of Clinton or Obama needing 2,025 delegates to win the nomination based solely on elected delegates, and at this point, it’s unable to happen for Clinton as well as likely unable to happen for Obama being that there are 217 pledged delegates at stake in the final six primary contests.

Obama’s campaign believes that he will gain a majority of those 217 delegates when Oregon and Kentucky vote on May 20.

If the democratic nominee is not decided from delegates, then that is when the count will then become factored from superdelegates which there were about 250 uncommitted superdelegates out of the nearly 800 total when Clinton held a lead of 169-63 a little more than four months ago, with now the count being almost tied with Clinton at 271.5 to Obama’s 271.

Since Tuesday’s contests, Obama has earned 13 superdelegate endorsements moving him much closer to winning the nomination.

The Illinois Senator was also endorsed by the American Federation of Government Employees, representing 600,000 federal workers.

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