By John Whitesides, Political Correspondent
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Barack Obama will take a major steptoward the Democratic presidential nomination when Oregon andKentucky vote on Tuesday, but rival Hillary Clinton still hopesto spoil the party.
After Tuesday's results, Obama will be able to claim amajority of pledged delegates won in the lengthy state-by-statefight with Clinton.
It is a landmark he hopes will signal the beginning of theend of their gruelling race to contest November's presidentialelection against Republican John McCain.
Voting ends in Kentucky at 7 p.m. EDT (12:00 a.m. Britishtime on Wednesday) and Oregon's mail balloting will end at 8p.m. PDT/11 p.m. EDT (4:00 a.m. British time on Wednesday.)Results are expected shortly after.
While Obama, an Illinois senator, could still be about 50to 75 delegates short of the 2,026 needed to win the nominationat the Democratic convention in August, he hopes the mark willsend more undecided superdelegates -- party officials who canback any candidate -- flooding his way.
"A clear majority of elected delegates will send anunmistakable message -- the people have spoken and they areready for change," Obama campaign manager David Plouffe said inan e-mail message to supporters.
BILLIONAIRE INVESTOR BUFFETT BACKS EITHER DEMOCRAT
But a newly formed women's political action committee,WomenCount, took out a full page advertisement in Tuesday's NewYork Times to encourage Clinton, a New York senator, to stay inthe race.
"Not so fast," it said. "Hillary's voice is our voice, andshe's speaking for us."
Meanwhile, the world's most famous stock market investor,Warren Buffett, said he would be happy with either Democratsitting in the White House.
The Berkshire Hathaway chief told both Clinton and Obama hewould back them before they launched their competingpresidential bids, putting him in an awkward position once theyboth decided to run.
"I have been supporting both of them ever since. I will bevery happy if either one of them is president of the UnitedStates," he said at a news conference in Switzerland. "I thinkthey are outstanding candidates and both would make outstandingpresidents."
Clinton, who has ignored Obama's almost unassailable leadin delegates for weeks and shrugged off calls to quit the racebefore the last of the primary elections on June 3, has vowedto keep campaigning.
"There is no way that this is going to end any time soonbecause we're going to keep fighting for the nomination," shetold a rally on Monday in Prestonsburg, Kentucky.
She said superdelegates should reconsider the race becauseshe would be a stronger foe for McCain, an Arizona senator. Hervictories in big states like Pennsylvania and Ohio gave her abroader base of support than Obama, she said.
Geraldine Ferraro, a New York Democrat who in 1984 becamethe country's first woman vice presidential candidate of amajor party, said on NBC's "Today" show that Clinton was thevictim of some sexist campaigning.
"Latent sexism has been around this country for a longtime, in this campaign it was patent," Ferraro said.
OREGON FAVORS OBAMA, KENTUCKY CLINTON
Obama is favoured to win in Oregon, where opinion pollsgive him a lead between 4 percentage points and double-digits,and Clinton is a big favourite in Kentucky. The two states havea combined 103 delegates at stake on Tuesday.
Obama contends the remaining undecided superdelegates, whohave been trending his way heavily in recent weeks, shouldsupport him since he won the most delegates in state voting.
Obama will celebrate Tuesday's returns at a rally in Iowa,a general election battleground where he made his breakthroughwith a big win in the first Democratic contest on January 3.
A delegate count by MSNBC gives Obama 1,901 delegates toClinton's 1,724.
After Tuesday, just three more contests will remain with 86delegates at stake. Slightly more than 200 superdelegatesremain uncommitted.
(Additional reporting by Jeff Mason and Ellen Wulfhorst;Editing by David Wiessler)
(To read more about the U.S. political campaign, visitReuters "Tales from the Trail: 2008" online athttp:/blogs.reuters.com/trail08/ )
