Six days and counting. That’s how long Barack Obama thinks it’ll take before he is the hands-down nominee of the Democratic Party and can make the full pivot toward a general election.Hillary Clinton is still traipsing through primary states and pressing her case to uncommitted superdelegates, but the Obama campaign is spreading the word that once the final primaries in South Dakota and Montana are held Tuesday, the race is over. “I would say either on Tuesday or Wednesday of next week, we’ll know the Democratic nominee,” Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs said on a cable news show Thursday morning. “And I can predict for you right here … that that Democratic nominee will be Barack Obama.”
Obama told reporters on his campaign plane Wednesday night that he believes heÂ’ll clinch the nomination Tuesday, and that will mark the start of the general election campaign.
He may limp to the finish. Puerto Rico precedes the final contests on Sunday, and a new poll shows Clinton — a favorite among Hispanic voters — leading by double digits in the territory. With 55 delegates, it is the most valuable contest left on the calendar. Montana and South Dakota offer just 16 and 15 delegates, respectively.