Barack Obama stands at the brink of victory in the Democratic presidential race. He has defeated Hillary Rodham Clinton in the Oregon primary and is within 100 delegates of the total needed to claim the top prize at the party convention this summer.
He told cheering supporters at a rally in Iowa that they had put him within reach of the nomination. Iowa is the overwhelmingly white state that launched the black, first-term senator from Illinois on his improbable path to victory last January.