By Yang Qingchuan

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.