Just a few months ago Democrats were split down the middle. Team Obama v. Team Clinton. The schism was deep - and made deeper by comments Bill Clinton made on the campaign trail - gaffes, some might say - that seemed to further divide the Party.

Today - just about a month after the contest ended - the rift is no longer. So says Barack Obama.

Obama and Mrs. Clinton stood side-by-side in Unity, New Hampshire, last week and just yesterday, Mr. Clinton told Obama he would campaign with and for the presumptive Democratic nominee during a 20 minute phone call initiated by Obama. “President Clinton continues to be impressed by Sen. Obama and the campaign he has run, and looks forward to campaigning for and with him in the months to come,” a Clinton spokesman said.

At a press avail in Ohio today, Obama praised Clinton, and enthusiastically welcomed his help on the campaign trail. “He is one of the most gifted public officials of our generation and you know has been one of the most successful presidents that we’ve had in my lifetime, so I want his active involvement, his active participation,” Obama told reporters.

Obama said the two did not “belabor” what was said during the primary season, but that they both acknowledged that words may have been said that “afterwards you may end up thinking, ‘Ah, it might have been a little intemperate.’” He continued, “But that’s the nature of political campaigns. We are absolutely united in wanting to make sure that Dems succeed both in Congress and in the White House in November, and that we can move an agenda forward that’s actually going to help the people in Ohio.”

On June 1st, Puerto Rico will hold its primary, the third to last contest of this long and drawn out Democratic race. Barack Obama spent the day campaigning in the territory, hoping to reap some of its 55 pledged delegates up for grabs next Sunday.

Obama is likely to secure his party’s nomination and he is already campaigning as though he is the presumptive nominee by holding events in general election states and taking on Senator McCain more than Senator Clinton. And today in Old San Juan, Obama told several thousand he thought this race might come to an end sooner rather than later should do well in the island’s primary.

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But later on a four and a half hour flight from San Juan to Chicago, Obama clarified his comment to reporters. “What I mean was, you know we have three more contests and if we do well in those next three contests, then we should be in a position hopefully to say that we’ve won this nomination.” He also observed that while he expects to do well in Puerto Rico’s primary, “I’m not as well known as Senator Clinton on the island.”

Following his several brief rally in Old San Juan, Obama walked in a traditional candidate’s parade called a camitana, greeting supporters and onlookers lined along the street. As Obama-themed salsa music blared, Obama occasionally showed the crowd some of his moves. Check it out here:

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On a warm spring evening in Des Moines, Barack Obama took the stage to announce he’d achieved a milestone in the protracted race for the Democratic nomination – a journey that became viable in Iowa thanks to an upset victory in the state on January 3rd. “The skeptics predicted we wouldn’t get very far. The cynics dismissed us as a lot of hype and a little too much hope. And by the fall, the pundits in Washington had all but counted us out. But the people of Iowa had a different idea,” Obama said to about 7,000 in an outdoor rally.

While Hillary Clinton is far from publicly admitting her possible defeat, Obama declared, “Tonight in the fullness of spring, with the help of those who stood up from Portland to Louisville, we have returned to Iowa with a majority of delegates elected by the American people, and you have put us within reach of the Democratic nomination for President of the United States.
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“This is a big deal,” senior advisor David Axelrod told reporters en route to the rally. “I don’t think anybody has ever won the majority of pledged delegates and have not been the nominee of the party, so it’s obviously very important, but we are going to fight for every delegate and finish out the process,” he continued.

But sounding like the presumptive nominee, Obama has shifted from taking on Hillary Clinton to praising her. Last night Obama called her a formidable candidate and noted her 35 years of pulbic service. “We have had our disagreements during this campaign, but we all admire her courage, her commitment and her perseverance. No matter how this primary ends, Senator Clinton has shattered myths and broken barriers and changed the America in which my daughters and yours will come of age,” he said as the polite crowd applaued.

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Rather, Obama is ready to move to the next phase of the campaign in taking on John McCain. “While our primary has been long and hard-fought, the hardest and most important part of our journey still lies ahead,” he said. “This year’s Republican primary was a contest to see which candidate could out-Bush the other, and that is the contest John McCain won.”

The candidate will be campaigning in the two states and one territory with remaining contests, but will be making more stops in general election battleground states. “We’re gonna keep working both at closing out this process officially and all the work that lies ahead in terms of the general election,” Axelrod said.

Today Obama is campaigning in Florida.

The weekend before the Indiana primary on Tuesday, Barack Obama is traveling the state opting to meet and greet voters in intimate settings rather than rallying the troops at 15,000+ person rallies that he’s become known for.

Today Barack Obama campaigned at a park in Noblesville, Indiana, where several hundred people waited, many sitting on blankets in the grass. While Michelle and Barack Obama spoke to the crowd, daughters Sasha and Malia opted to spend much of their time playing with the other children in a nearby park, swinging and spinning around on a double-decker merry-go-round. “Faster, faster!” the girls chanted along with the other children.

It was appropriate that the message today was family as this was the first time the entire Obama family has appeared together on the campaign trail since Iowa. “We wanted to have a family day because our hope is that when we get into the White House is that the White House will be a place where children and family become the core of everything that happens out of that building,” Michelle told the crowd.

And noting Obama’s recent slied in the polls, she said, “But before we can get to the White House, we have to get through the primary right here in this state. And Barack Obama, as wonderful as we know he is, started out as the underdog in this race, and as far as I’m concerned, he will always be the underdog until the day he is sitting in the Oval Office. So that means we can’t take anything for granted. Not a thing. Everybody has to vote.”

Later, the family visited Barack Obama’s maternal grandparents’ home in tiny Kempton, Indiana, where they greeted about 20 or so locals behind the old, white home that sat in the middle of a sprawling cornfield. Perhaps hoping for a word-of-mouth campaign, the candidate really worked the small crowd as press watched from a distance, unable to see or hear much.

To cap off his day of small-time events, Barack Obama dropped by Great Skates skating rink in Lafayette. The candidate shook hands and mingled with the locals as ’70s and 80’s music blared from the speakers. Twice during the Village People’s “YMCA,” Barack Obama spelled the letters out with his arms over his head as one is inclined to do, and while his daughters Sasha and Malia dared to skate as the cameras documented their every fall, a wise Barack and Michelle Obama instead walked the rink donned in street shoes with their girls.

Obama took the microphone for just a few minutes after spending nearly an hour inside and noted, “I need all of you to go out there and talk to your friends and your neighbors and tell them that this is an extraordinary time and an extraordinary election and that the people of Indiana are gonna be able to make a decision about the future of our country. You can’t let that chance pass by.”

Tomorrow the candidate will drop by another family picnic in Fort Wayne and canvass an Indiana neighborhood before speaking at the state party’s Jefferson Jackson Dinner.

When asked about Senator Patrick Leahy’s (D-VT) comments in an interview this week that Senator Clinton should drop out of the race, Senator Barack Obama admitted he hadn’t broached the subject with Leahy, who was an early Obama endorser. “My attitude is that Senator Clinton can run as long as she wants. Her name is on the ballot and she is a fierce and formidable competitor and she obviously believes that she would make the best nominee and the best president and I think that, you know, she should be able to compete and her supporters should be able to support her for as long as they are willing or able,” Obama told reporters at a media availability.

Just how long the primary campaign will continue has some Democrats, like Leahy, worried.  The concern is that as Obama and Clinton campaign against each other, the more likely it is the Democratic Party will fracture and Senator McCain will stand to benefit. Obama rejected that notion, saying he though those claims were “overstated.”

“I think the party is going to come together. You can’t tell me that some of my supporters are going to say, ‘well we’d rather have the guy who may want to stay in Iraq for a hundred years because we are mad that Senator Clinton ran a negative ad against Senator Obama.’ I think the converse is true as well,” he explained.

That said, Senator Obama said he hopes the nominee will be selected prior to the Democrat’s August convention. “When we’ve completed all the contests that are remaining, some time in early June, that at that point there are no more contests and I think it is important to pivot as quickly as possible, for the superdelegates or others to make a decision as quickly as possible so that we can settle on a nominee and give that nominee some time before the convention to select a vice president or presidential nominee to start thinking about how the convention should be conducted,” he said.

A brokered convention is something Obama hopes to avoid. “At that point, there won’t be really anything, any further information to be had. We will have had contests in all fifty states plus several terroritories. We will have tallied up the pledge delegate vote. We will have tallied up the popular vote, we will have tallied up how many states that were won by who. And then at that point, I think people should have more than enough information to make a decision.”

 According to an article in today’s Detroit Free Press, the Obama campaign nixed a Michigan do-over - in what’s been called a “firehouse primary.”

[If you recall, Senator Obama signed a pledge not to campaign in Michigan when the state moved its primary earlier than the Democratic National Committee permitted. As a result, the DNC stripped the state of its 156 delegates and rendered the primary moot. The name Barack Obama did not appear on the ballot, and Senator Clinton walked away with 55% of the vote. Clinton has expressed interest of seating the delegates at this summer's Democratic Convention, but the Obama campaign has maintained this is unfair for obvious reasons. The issue has yet to be resolved, as is the case with the Florida primary results.]

On a conference call today, Obama Campaign Manager David Plouffe said the report that indicated the campaign would not go for the revote was “not accurate.”

“What we have said we have abided by the DNC rules to this date and we’ll continue to abide by them. If there is a remedy that the DNC and state parties agree to, that meets the rules, we will abide by those. We do not think it’s the place of the two campaigns where we’re in heated contest here, to negotiate this,” he explained.

Plouffe also noted that Hillary Clinton has been “changing the rules midstream” by agreeing to the DNC pledge that the delegates would not count and then seeking to get the delegates seated. This, Plouffe said, “is the kind of politics people are tired of.” He continued, “We’re not going to pick and choose what kind of contest is  appropriate to us. We would like resolution to this and we would like resolution to this quickly. I think everybody would, so that we have some certainty what the nomination fight is going to look like.”

Meanwhile, the Obama campaign has declared victory in Wyoming, where they netted two pledged delegates. This isn’t a huge coup, but as Plouffe noted, ” is a third of her net from those big contests on March 4th.” The Obama campaign has estimated Clinton netted six delegates from her wins in Ohio, Texas, and Rhode Island.

After a sound victory in the South Carolina primary, Senator Barack Obama delivered a rousing victory speech to a crowd of about 1,500. The 18-minute long speech, delivered with the aid of a teleprompter, was conciliatory and, at times, stinging when it came to his rivals.

Gracious in victory, Obama said his “fierce competitors” were “worthy of our respect and admiration.” He observed, “And as contentious as this campaign may get, we have to remember that this is a contest for the Democratic nomination, and that all of us share an abiding desire to end the disastrous policies of the current administration.”

But realizing his fight is far from over, he also noted, “We are up against the idea that it’s acceptable to say anything and do anything to win an election. We know that this is exactly what’s wrong with our politics; this is why people don’t believe what their leaders say anymore; this is why they tune out.”

“The choice in this election,” Obama said, “is not between religions or genders. It’s not about rich versus poor; young versus old, and it is not about black versus white.” The crowd cheered. “It’s about the past versus the future.”

The senator concluded his remarks with a hopeful, yet patently Obama mantra. “Where we are met with cynicism and doubt, and those who tell us that we can’t – we will respond with that timeless creed that sums up the spirit of a people in three simple words: Yes we can.”

Watch (most of) Senator Obama’s speech here:

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The following press release was sent to reporters covering the South Carolina primary from SC GOP Chairman Katon Dawson:
Dawson: No surprise to see Democrats settle for Senator Obama

SCGOP Chairman confident Republican will carry South Carolina in November

COLUMBIA, S.C – South Carolina Republican Party Chairman Katon Dawson tonight released the following statement on the results of the South Carolina Democrat Presidential Primary:

“It was no surprise to see Democrat primary voters in South Carolina today settle for Illinois Senator Barack Obama.  Although Senator Obama is one of history’s most inexperienced presidential candidates, his opponent Senator Hillary Clinton abandoned her liberal candidacy here because our voters have never backed a Clinton – and John Edwards was too out of touch and too negative to defend his 2004 win on his own home turf.

“Tonight, I am more confident than ever our Party’s nominee for president will be overwhelmingly supported in South Carolina no matter who wins over the liberal Democrat primary base.”

As we in the press corps wait for Senator Barack Obama’s 9 o’clock victory speech here at the Columbia Convention Center, the crowd is trickling in after going through security. Obama’s staffers are freely mingling in the press area - something they did in Iowa, but not in New Hampshire - or Nevada, when they all left the state before the caucus. A giant television screen suspended from the ceiling is blasting CNN - which just showed video of Senator Hillary Clinton leaving her South Carolina hotel. The crowd booed. The boos were just as loud when the monitor showed video of former President Bill Clinton speaking in Independence, Missouri. The crowd, of course, cheers every time the network delivers pro-Obama news. At one point the diverse crowd chanted, “Race doesn’t matter!”

Barack Obama began what would be a successful day in his candidacy at Columbia’s Bethelehem Baptist Church, followed by a quick stop at a polling precinct at the historically black Benedict College - sans press. A small press pool was allowed to accompany Obama to greet patrons of Harper’s Restaurant, where Obama exchanged pleasantries and posed for photos with nearly every table and some of the restaurant’s employees before leaving.

The Senator spent much of the day holed up in his Columbia hotel, where he did multiple interviews via satellite with South Carolina and February 5th state television stations. To unwind, Obama along with two staffers (including his body guy, Reggie Love, who used to play for Duke University and 6′8″ trip director, Marvin Nicholson) played a little basketball with some of Obama’s Secret Service detail. Obama’s team won the best of three contest, two games to one.

Shortly after the polls closed in South Carolina, Senior Advisor David Axelrod and Communications Director Robert Gibbs emerged from their hotel to walk the short block to the Columbia Convention Center. Gibbs told a gaggle of reporters that it appears the white vote was “far closer” than anyone had thought it would be - early exit polls show that Obama received a whopping 80% of the African American vote and 24% of the caucasian vote as compared to Hillary Clinton and John Edwards’ 38% each.

This is an election about delegates - not states, Gibbs said. The campaign sent out a statement that estimated Obama snatched 25 delegates here in South Carolina. Clinton picked up 12 and Edwards 8, per the Obama campaign. Their tally now has Obama leading the delegate count 63 to Clinton’s 48 and Edwards’ 26.

Gibbs waas sure that the race for the nomination would not be decided by February 5th. Expect a long battle that could extend into April. Gibbs was unsure if Hillary Clinton had called Barack Obama to congratulate him on his victory, but in a statement put out by the Clinton Camp, Clinton said she had called to “congratulate him and wish him well.” It continued, “We now turn our attention to the millions of Americans who will make their voices heard in Florida and the twenty-two states as well as American Samoa who will vote on February 5th.”

On the eve of Martin Luther King Day—just moments before the start of the Democratic presidential debate in South Carolina—John Edwards’ campaign released a letter sent by King’s son, Martin Luther King III, to the former North Carolina senator, praising him for his commitment to end poverty and injustice and calling for all candidates to emulate his initiative.

“I want to challenge all candidates to follow your lead, and speak up loudly and forcefully on the issue of economic justice in America,” King wrote. “My dad was a fighter…Keep fighting. My father would be proud.”

Edwards and King held a private meeting at the King Center in Atlanta on Saturday, and though details of that encounter were not disclosed to the press, the two men discussed Dr. King’s legacy and their “shared commitment to fighting poverty,” according to Mark Kornblau, a spokesman for Edwards’ campaign.

In his letter, King addressed the aims of Edwards’ campaign mission: “I appreciate that on the major issues of health care, the environment, and the economy, you have framed the issues for what they are - a struggle for justice. And, you have almost single-handedly made poverty an issue in this election.”

The letter could not have come at a more opportune time for Edwards, who was asked at the end of Monday night’s debate, “If Dr. Martin Luther King were alive today…why do you think he would or why should he endorse you?”

Without hesitation, Edwards said he has focused his cause on the “two biggest issues that Dr. King stood for, which are the issues of equality and ending poverty in America.”

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