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Obama’s focus on November

Washington: Barack Obama, increasingly sure of winning the Democratic nomination, gave Hillary Clinton room to find a graceful exit from the race on Thursday by switching his focus to the coming battle against the Republicans in November.

While Ms. Clinton remained focussed on campaigning in the remaining six contests for the Democratic nomination, Mr. Obama’s team said he was beginning to look ahead to his strategy against John McCain.

The changing dynamic was underlined in Mr. Obama’s victory lap of Congress yesterday, where the Illinois Senator spent 45 minutes in the House of Representatives trading handshakes and even hugs with members who were Clinton supporters. He also held a meeting with members of Congress who remain among the uncommitted Democratic superdelegates, hoping to win over enough to clinch the party nomination.

Mr. Obama told reporters afterwards that he would contest the six remaining contests, and said he expected Ms. Clinton to win at least two of them. “Senator Clinton is a formidable candidate, she is very likely to win West Virginia and Kentucky, those are two states where she’s got insurmountable leads,” he told reporters. “But my goal has been to spend time in all 50 States.”

With the delegate map and momentum in his favour, Mr. Obama’s pace on the campaign trail is far less frantic than Ms. Clinton’s; she had appearances in West Virginia, South Dakota, and Oregon on Thursday.

His campaign, meanwhile, appeared to send out a signal to supporters to avoid calling for Ms. Clinton to exit the race. — ©Guardian Newspapers Limited, 2008

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