After enjoying some ice cream with his family on a beautiful Oregon day, Barack Obama took a few questions from his traveling press corps. The first question - why return to Iowa Tuesday?

“We thought it was a terrific way to kind of bring things full circle,” he said. “If Kentucky and Oregon go as we hope, then we think we will have a majority of pledged delegates at that point, and that’s a pretty signigicant mark,” he replied. Obama is expected to win Oregon, while Clinton will likely win by a healthy margin in Kentucky.

So will you hear a victory speech in Des Moines Tuesday night? Not exactly, according to the candidate. “I won’t be the nominee until we have enough, a combination of both pledged delegates and superdelegates to hit the mark.”

To become the Democratic nominee, a candidate needs to secure 2,026 delegates. Right now Obama is short of that mark by more than 100 delegates, but still leads Clinton.

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JUNCTION CITY, Ore — Hillary Clinton says she’s going forward with her long-shot bid for the Democratic nomination until everyone has a chance to vote — and today claimed the lead in at least one measure of presidential preference.

“I’m ahead in the popular vote,” she said at an economic roundtable, after resident Sandy Mehlbrech urged her to stay in the race. “I’ve got about 50,000 more votes, which is really exciting because that’s important.”

While Senator Clinton does indeed lead in the popular vote if every state is counted, most tallies leave off Florida and Michigan, since the candidates were forbidden from campaigning there and their delegates were stripped by the DNC. Obama’s name wasn’t on the ballot in Michigan, further complicating Clinton’s claim.

While she’s an underdog in Oregon, where residents mail in their presidential ballots, Sen Clinton said she had reason to be optimistic. “I heard, I don’t know if this is the latest news, but that most ballots are still out. People are trying to make up their minds,” she said. “Obviously I hope to persuade those of you who haven’t sent in your ballots in Oregon to consider supporting me.”

The rest of the event focused on economic issues, particularly the effect high gas prices arw having on working folks in the state. Sen Clinton placed the blame on President Bush. “As we’re sitting here in this lovely home, President Bush is over in Saudi Arabia having tea with the Saudi leaders, trying to persuade them to either increase supply or lower price. That’s his energy policy,” she said. “I don’t think it’s good energy policy to depend on the kindness of the Saudis and the other OPEC nations, and basically have tea with them while businesses and individuals try to figure out how to afford nearly $4 a gallon gas and $5 a gallon diesel.”

“The Saudis may decide we need to do something to help out President Bush, but that’s just a short term fix that is not going to have any long term consequences. We just have to take a different apprach if we’re going to get serious.”

PORTLAND, Ore — After a day of attacking Barack Obama for failing to agree to a Democratic debate, for failing to agree with her plan for a federal gas tax holiday, and for failing to side with the forces of good on the 2005 “Dick Cheney Energy Bill,” Hillary Clinton went back to attacking him on what she’s called the driving force behind her campaign — for failing to provide universal health care.

Speaking to reporters and patients bundled against the cold in a chilly courtyard here at a local children’s hospital, Clinton zeroed in on what she called the “artificial distinction” between children and adults in Obama’s health care plan. Obama would mandate coverage for kids, but not for adults — a proposal Clinton called “unworkable.”

“You have to have a seamless health care system which covers every single person. My plan does, my opponent’s doesn’t,” she said. “There are 600,000 uninsured Oregonians. Under my plan, everyone would be covered. Under his plan at least 220,000 would still be left uninsured.”

“This is a big difference in this campaign. And really, it’s not a difference of politics as much as commitment.”

Clinton’s chances for the nomination seem slimmer with each passing hour, as superdelegates are flocking to Obama. But Clinton seemed energized as she spoke about the issue that has been at the center of her campaign.

“I deeply, deeply believe that we’ve got to get to universal health care. And if you don’t start in favor of universal health care, you’ll never get there,” she said. “How can anybody run to be the Democratic nominee for president and not have a universal health care plan?”

“This is a huge difference, and it’s one that I obviously feel very passionately about,” she said.

Health care has gotten short shrift on the Clinton campaign trail as she’s focused on the economy of late. As his candidacy seemed less and less viable, John Edwards returned to his chief issue of poverty - and asked the remaining candidates to take up his cause. Though Clinton aides insist she’s a long way from dropping out, we may look back on this event in the coming weeks and see an impassioned plea for Senator Obama to take up the mantle of universal health care in her absence.

PORTLAND, Ore — Despite limited resources, impossible delegate math, and a ticking clock working against her, Hillary Clinton’s first few public events after a big loss in North Carolina and too-narrow victory in Indiana on Tuesday have shown very little to suggest that she’s changed her strategy or approach going forward.

In the wake of that poor performance, some pundits suggested that Clinton would cease and desist in attacking her Democratic rival Barack Obama to pave the way for a graceful exit and possibly curry favor for a joint ticket. Indeed, in her remarks in Shepherdstown, WV on Wednesday, there was nary a mention of Obama or even “my opponent.”

But yesterday saw Clinton criticizing Obama for opposing a federal gas tax holiday — as she did in the last days before Tuesday’s primary — and calling him out for ducking a debate in Oregon, much as she did in the week after her win in Pennsylvania last month. She also repeated her standard attacks on his vote for what she calls the “Dick Cheney Energy Bill” in 2005

The only concessions to her new political reality now come in the form of defiant responses to those who would end the election before all the votes are counted.

“People say to me all the time, are you going to keep going? Of course I’m going to keep going”!” she said in Central Point, OR. And in Charleston, WV, she listed all the times she defied the odds when she was counted out. “Some in Washington wanted us to end our campaign, then I won New Hampshire. Then we had huge victories on Super Tuesday. Then we won Ohio and Texas and Pennsylvania. And I was never supposed to win Indiana,” she said. “Now there are some folks who have said, well, we needed to end this before we got to West Virginia. Well I don’t think so. I think we want to keep this going so that the people of West Virginia’s voices are heard.”

There is, however, a hint of wistfulness amid the tough talk. Clinton thanked supporters at a fundraiser in Washington for sticking with her though all of the ups and downs of this campaign. And in Central Point apologized for being late with something of a metaphor for the uphill battle she’s facing.

“We were flying against the wind,” she said. “You know, that’s the story of my life. Fly against the wind, you’ll get there eventually.”

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Hillary Clinton delivered an impassioned defense of her continued candidacy in Eugene, Oregon — telling a young Obama supporter who asked whether she really wanted to help the Democratic party or was merely being “self serving” that the race “is not a coronation. It is a contest.”

“Election are about choices. You’re supposed to present your case and you’re supposed to critique the other case. That’s what you do in an election,” she said. “This country is worth fighting for, and I’m going to fight for it.” The crowd erupted in a standing ovation.

Addressing what her interlocutor said were negative statements by her campaign about Sen Obama, Clinton replied “there have been some things, believe it or not, that have even been said about me by his campaign. I don’t take it any of it personally and I don’t take most of it seriously.”

“If you can’t stand the heat, don’t run for president, because it’s a really hot kitchen in the White House.”

She seemed to dismiss Obama’s message of hope and unity as pie-in-the-sky idealism. “I wish I could believe that we could get to universal health care, that we could turn the economy around, that we could end the home foreclosure crisis merely by asking people to do it. By bringing them together. By pointing to a higher cause and expecting them to shelve their commercial, ideological, personal and partisan advantages,” she said. “That is not the way the world has ever worked.”

“I wouldn’t be getting up at 5am and going to bed at 2am if I didn’t believe I would be the better candidate to beat John McCain, stand toe to toe, go at him on national security, go at him on the economy. that’s why I’m here.”

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Hillary Clinton made her first trip to Oregon, speaking to a packed high school gym just outside of Portland. While they acknowledge that her rival Barack Obama is favored here, the Clinton campaign is playing hard — naming a state director and what the campaign calls a “very active” steering committee, ramping up field staff and opening a state headquarters in Portland next week and satellite offices in every congressional district.

They’re also tailoring their strategy around Oregon’s unique mail-in primary system; ballots will be mailed out on April 28th, and the majority of voters are expected to submit ballots through the post.

“I’m here to meet with you and talk with you and hopefully make my case to you,” she told the voters of Hillsboro, OR. “This is my first trip in a campaign of firsts, and I’m glad to be able to blaze a home in the land of the Trailblazers.”

But even in the Beaver State, she was focused on Michigan and Florida. She’s long argued that their delegates should count, but today she claimed their popular votes should count as well — a move that would put her much closer to Obama in that metric.

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Bill Richardson became the second former ‘08 Democratic candidate for president to pick a pony for the Democratic nomination, when he endorsed Barack Obama today. The news hit on the AP wire a little at 3am, Eastern this morning, that Richardson, the former New Mexico governor, would join Senator Obama make his announcement on the campaign trail in Portland, Oregon. Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT), endorsed Senator Obama last month in Ohio.

Obama explained the timing of the endorsement, which comes after a week’s worth of bad news for his campaign. He told reporters, “Last week, Governor Richardson agreed to endorse me, but we couldn’t get scheduled logistically because he had to go take a vacation with his wife, very wisely. So it took us till today to actually make the public announcement.”

Richardson, who served in President Bill Cinton’s administration, said that up until a week ago, he had been torn by two “very strong, good candidates.” Ultimately he made his decision  because he considers Obama to be “something special that the country needs right now,” citing Obama’s humanity, intellect, and judgment.

His decision was reinforced upon hearing Obama’s speech Tuesday, Richardson said. “He did not seek to evade tough issues or to soothe us with comforting half-truths. Rather, he inspired us by reminding us of the awesome potential residing in our own responsibility,” he said of Obama’s speech.

But with long-standing ties to the Clintons, he described his conversation with Senator Clinton last night to inform her of his decision as uncomfortable. “Let me say I’ve had better conversations,” Richardson said with a laugh. As he told the some 12,000 people in Portland, “The 1990s were a decade of peace and prosperity because of the competent and enlightened leadership of the Clinton administration, but it is now time for a new generation of leadership to lead America forward.”

While Hillary Clinton has remained mum in response to the endorsement, Mark Penn, a Clinton senior advisor told reporters on a conference call, “Perhaps the time he could have been most effective is long since past.”

“You know, that’s unfortunate. I want to get away from that,” Richardson said, standing next to Senator Obama at a media avail, saying this comment implied he could only help rally the Hispanic vote in states like Texas. “I want to go where Senator Obama has, where he’s calling on all of us to come together, not to be stereotyped,” he said.
In a lighter moment during his speech introducing Senator Obama at the Portland rally, Richardson strayed from his prepared remarks to recount a story to demonstrate that Obama is a “really good guy.”

Lamenting that he was never called upon during the numerous Democratic debates, he recalled being surprised when asked a question by the moderator of an undisclosed debate. “Needless to say, I wasn’t listening and I turned to Senator Obama in horror about to say, ‘Would you repeat the question,’ and Senator Obama whispered, he said, ‘Katrina. Katrina.’ And so I then gave my answer on Katrina,” Richardson said with a grin. “He could have thrown me under the bus, he but he stood behind me.”

“Don’t tell anyone about that incident,” he joked.