By Yang Qingchuan

    WASHINGTON, May 20 (Xinhua) -- Though short of declaring victory in the Democratic presidential nomination race, U.S. Senator Barack Obama of Illinois is getting closer to the ultimate prize each day.

    That is why he has largely ignored the results of the remaining primaries and is looking beyond to November's contest with the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, Senator John McCain of Arizona.

    For the same reason, Obama chose Iowa to make a public speech Tuesday night even as he was competing with rival Senator Hillary Clinton of New York in primaries in Kentucky and Oregon.

    Iowa is a key battleground state that the Democrats would love to win in November's general election.

    Another sign that Obama has his sights focused on the presidential race is that he has attacked McCain more frequently in recent days, but had kinder and more reconciling words for Clinton.

    A NEW MILESTONE

    Although Clinton handily beat Obama in Kentucky and did not do too badly in Oregon, the U.S. media focus is not on the primaries but on a new milestone Obama has reached.

    Obama has won the majority of the 3,253 pledged delegates going to the national Democratic convention in August.

    By picking up at least 14 of the 51 pledged delegates in Kentucky, Obama has passed the threshold of the 1,627 delegates needed to make that claim.

    Pledged delegates are those won by the candidates in the primary and caucus contests, as opposed to some 800 superdelegates, whose votes are not tied to any primary or caucus results.

    Superdelegates are Democratic governors, members of Congress and party officials.

    Winning the majority of the pledged delegates means that although there are three contests left, Obama is already the choice of the majority of Democrats in the country.

    Combined with the number of superdelegates, Obama now has 1,932total delegates, compared to Clinton's 1,753.

    A candidate needs 2,026 delegates to win the Democratic nomination.

    As Obama bags more superdelegates each day and can still win dozens of pledged delegates in the three remaining primaries, he will likely be able to reach the magic number of 2,026 on June 3, the last day of the Democratic primaries.

    WITHIN REACH

    It is still premature for Obama to declare himself the Democratic nominee at this point, but he is approaching that goal by nearly every measure.

    He has won 32 of the past 53 Democratic primaries and caucuses, versus Clinton's 21.

    He has won more popular votes, as the votes in Michigan and Florida are not counted in punishment for the two states' violation of Democratic Party election rules.

    Meanwhile, Obama continues to pull in the backing of superdelegates, which is necessary to formally put him ahead in the Democratic contest.

    Among the superdelegates, many former Clinton supporters are switching to Obama.

    Even in national polls, he is expanding his lead against Clinton.

    The latest Gallup poll shows Obama is currently favored by 55 percent of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents, to Clinton's 39 percent.

    He also has a huge advantage in terms of campaign finance.

    Obama's campaign reported Tuesday the Illinois senator raised more than 31 million U.S. dollars in April, with 37 million dollars of cash on hand.

    That is in sharp contrast to the 21-million-dollar debt of the Clinton campaign, which is unwilling disclose how much cash is on hand.

    CHALLENGE TO UNITE THE PARTY

    However, Obama still needs to reach out to Clinton supporters to unite the party as quickly as possible before taking on his Republican opponent.

    The prolonged contest between the two candidates has caused a rift in the party that will take time to close, as exit polls from recent primaries shows.

    In Kentucky, two-thirds of Clinton supporters said they would vote for Republicans or not vote at all in the general election if Clinton is not their party's nominee.

    Of those, 41 percent said they would vote for Republican candidate McCain and 23 percent said they would not vote at all.

    Just 33 percent said they would back Obama in the general election.

    These numbers are even worse for Obama than in the West Virginia primary one week ago, where just 36 percent of Clinton supporters said they would back Obama.

    Analysts say the right thing for Obama to do is to give Clinton a graceful exit.

    He extended an olive branch in his speech Tuesday, congratulating Clinton for her victory in Kentucky.

    The Obama camp also avoided demanding that she get out of the race.

    Simon Rosenberg, president of Democratic think tank NDN, said: "Everybody in the Democratic family knows today that it's going to be hard to put this party back together."

    But whatever the challenges ahead, the Democrats have a political landscape tilted in their favor.

    U.S. voters are opposed to the Iraq war, alarmed about the weak economy and convinced the country is headed in the wrong direction.

    "If the Democrats can't win with this deck of cards, I'm not sure we should win," says Mark Siegel, a former official of the Democratic National Committee.