Obama Iowa Rally Planned For Tuesday

On Saturday the Obama campaign announced that they would be holding a rally in Des Moines, Iowa on Tuesday, May 20, the night of the Kentucky and Oregon primaries. The announcement has set off speculation about whether Obama might declare victory in the Democratic primary that evening. From Reuters:

Hoping that a pair of contests in Oregon and Kentucky on Tuesday will allow him to essentially clinch the Democratic nomination, Barack Obama will make a symbolic return to Iowa, the state that launched his underdog bid for the White House.

Polls suggest the Illinois senator will win Oregon comfortably while his rival New York Sen. Hillary Clinton is expected to prevail in Kentucky by a wide margin.

But the Obama campaign expects that when the results from the two contests come in, he will have racked up a majority of the pledged delegates awarded in the state-by-state contests, making him the likely winner in his battle with Clinton to become his party's nominee to face presumptive Republican nominee John McCain in November.

ABC's Political Radar has more on what kind of victory the Obama camp may declare at the end of the evening:

While Obama still will not have the 2026 delegates he would need to clinch the nomination, the Obama campaign is playing up the symbolism of the majority mark.

On Wednesday night, Obama was asked by a reporter if he would declare victory Tuesday night if he reached the majority of pledged delegates.

"We will declare that we have the majority of pledged delegates," Obama replied flatly.

Comments

[leftoflennon]

Wham! Go Bam!

Obama '08!

[Syco]

wham bam thank you mam

[unity08]

I thought that was Hillarys line.