So what’s different since Tuesday on the Obama campaign?

“Not much, here I am with you guys,” Barack Obama said with a laugh to reporters on board his campaign plane.

Just two days after securing the Democratic nomination, Obama was in the semi-regular position of taking questions from his traveling press corps on a flight following a fairly standard town hall in southwest Virginia, and heading to a fairly standard rally in Northern Virginia.

But this election is far from standard as Obama is the nation’s first African American to sit atop of a major party’s ticket for president. According to the history-making man, he’s been too busy to fully appreciate the win. “It hasn’t sunk in - we’ve been going at a pretty fast clip,” he shared.

Following his rally tonight, he’ll try to take it in this weekend at home with his family — no public events, according to his schedule.

“I intend to take the weekend off and I am going to take my wife out on a date. I hope to go on a bike ride with my kids and my sense is at some point this weekend I will have the opportunity to reflect on the journey we’ve traveled - and that will I think help me chart a course for where we are going to go…over the next five months,” he told reporters, many of whom also eager to have some down time as well.

A reporter wondered if Obama would savor his victory this weekend. The candidate who often says this election isn’t about him, but the people replied, “I think this weekend is to just savor my family, think back to the hard work we’ve put in and to think that now find ourselves in a position to really change the county and I promised. The one thing I can tell you that I feel an enormous obligation to the people who I’ve met during the course of this year, year and a half. The single mom without health insurance, the guy who lost his job and lost his health care and pension. They tell you during the course of the campaign, they are counting on you, they believe in you and I take that very seriously so we’ve got a lot of work to do, and that’s why there’s not a bunch of lot of self congratulatory moments right now, we’ve got work to do.”

He may have a little help on the campaign trail this fall. When asked if Obama would utilize former President Bill Clinton on the campaign trail - despite several stumbles during the primary, despite serveral contentious moments between the two - Obama simply replied, “Yes. I think Bill Clinton is an enormous talent, and I would welcome him campaigning for me.”

Today as news broke that Hillary Clinton would soon help to unify the Democratic Party by announcing her support for her one-time rival, the Obama camp remained silent.

“No thanks,” a senior staffer wrote when asked to respond to the news. According to two staffers, Hillary Clinton had not yet called Obama to discuss her plan (as of 7:40 pm).

When Barack Obama arrived at the first of two high dollar Manhattan fundraisers, reporters looking for comments were ignored. Instead, the presumptive Democratic nominee shook hands with supporters and well wishers.

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But the print pool reporter who covered the two fundraisers did get a question in to Obama. According to his pool report:

“Getting out of the motorcade in light drizzle, pooler asked Obama how it feels now that it appears even Hillary Clinton realizes he’s the nominee.

‘Truth is, I haven’t had time to think about it. This weekend, I’m going home, talk it over with Michele and we’re going on a date.’”

Obama is tentatively scheduled to at least sleep in Chicago tomorrow night through Sunday night.

In the arena that will be filled with GOP faithful in just a few months at the Republican Convention, Barack Obama will tell several thousand on hand an significantly more watching on television that after 54 contests, the primary season has come to an end. “Tonight, I can stand before you and say that I will be the Democratic nominee for President of the United States,” he is expected to say according to prepared remarks sent out to reporters.

On the hour-long flight from Chicago to St. Paul, Minnesota, Senior Advisor David Axelrod told the press that while the historic nomination has yet to sink in for him, Barack Obama is already thinking about what’s next. “He’s already thinking about where we go from here. But he’s obviously very happy.” Axelrod noted that while tonight’s a time to celebrate their hard-fought win, “We’re gonna wake up tomorrow and we’re gonna start all over again because we’re not in this you know simply to break a barrier, we’re in this to try and change a country.”

Staffers refused to talk about Hillary Clinton as a potential running mate - the line repeated to reporters on the campaign plane: “We don’t have a short list or a long list. We’re coming here tonight to finish the process of winning this nomination, then we’ll turn our attention to the notion of who the running mate will be,” Axelrod explained.

But Barack Obama will heap praise on his soon to be former rival at his victory rally. “Senator Hillary Clinton has made history in this campaign not just because she’s a woman who has done what no woman has done before, but because she’s a leader who inspires millions of Americans with her strength, her courage, and her commitment to the causes that brought us here tonight….You can rest assured that when we finally win the battle for universal health care in this country, she will be central to that victory. When we transform our energy policy and lift our children out of poverty, it will be because she worked to help make it happen. Our party and our country are better off because of her, and I am a better candidate for having had the honor to compete with Hillary Rodham Clinton,” he will say according to prepared remarks.

Party unity, after all, will be needed to beat John McCain this fall. “At the end of the day, we aren’t the reason you came out and waited in lines that stretched block after block to make your voice heard.  You didn’t do that because of me or Senator Clinton or anyone else.  You did it because you know in your hearts that at this moment – a moment that will define a generation – we cannot afford to keep doing what we’ve been doing.  We owe our children a better future.  We owe our country a better future.  And for all those who dream of that future tonight, I say – let us begin the work together.  Let us unite in common effort to chart a new course for America.”

Check out Obama talking with friends and advisors on his flight to Minnesota here:

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Read Obama’s prepared remarks below the jump

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After more than a year of campaigning and five months of contests, as it stands now, the Obama camp is finally ready to declare victory after the nation’s final contests June 3rd.

According to the campaign’s count, they are just 44 delegates away from the “magic number” - 2026, the amount of delegates needed to secure the Democratic nomination. Of course the DNC rules and bylaws committee is meeting Saturday to determine how to seat the Michigan and Florida delegations, which the Obama camp says will benefit team Clinton and likely increase the number of delegates needed for victory.

On a conference call yesterday, campaign manager David Plouffe admitted that would mean Obama will have to win more superdelegates, but later in the day, Obama had the following exchange with reporters on his campaign plane.

Reporter: Does the general election begin then after Tuesday?

Barack Obama: Yes.

Reporter: And you will be the winner at that point?

Obama: I believe so.

Reporter: We’ll have a nominee?

Obama: I hope so.

Obama hedged later in the conversation when he was asked about his endgame strategy. “I am sure we will have discussions with Senator Clinton and her team. Unless we have, you know it’s technically not over until we have the number of delegates needed to secure the nomination. Once we have that number, we will focus on the general election,” he said.

55 pledged delegates are up for grabs in Puerto Rico this Sunday, while Montana and South Dakota have a combined 31.

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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On Tuesday Kentucky and Oregon will weigh into the prolonged fight for the Democratic nomination, and while it’s typical that candidates hold their “victory” rallies in one of the states where voters have made their pick, the Obama campaign announced today their candidate will speak at an outdoor rally in Des Moines, Iowa. Of course Iowa is the state that first made an Obama nomination possible when a majority of Iowans caucused for him on January 3rd.

Tuesday is also the day when Barack Obama is expected to have a majority of the pledged delegates up for grabs, and while some have speculated this is tantamount to an Obama victory, the Democratic frontrunner has said he would not declare the race over. When asked about it just a few days ago, Obama would only say, “We will declare that we have the majority of pledged delegates.”

But actions speak louder than words - looking more and more like the presumptive nominee, the candidate will return to the state the campaign described as “a critical general election state that Democrats must win in November.”

Dallas, TX — It might have seemed nearly unimaginable only six months ago but Sen. John McCain officially won the GOP nomination Tuesday night after triumphant victories in Texas, Ohio, Rhode Island and Vermont.

“Now, we begin the most important part of our campaign: to make a respectful, determined and convincing case to the American people that our campaign and my election as President, given the alternatives presented by our friends in the other party, are in the best interests of the country we love,” McCain said before about 500 supporters at a victory party in Dallas. “The contest begins tonight. It will have its ups and downs. But we will fight every minute of every day to make certain we have a government that is as capable, wise, brave and decent as the great people we serve. That is our responsibility and I will not let you down.”

While he used victory speeches in recent weeks as a launching pad to strike his Democratic rivals, McCain focused most of tonight’s address on his vision for the country.

“Nothing is inevitable in America. We are the captains of our fate. We’re not a country that prefers nostalgia to optimism; a country that would rather go back than forward. We’re the world’s leader, and leaders don’t pine for the past and dread the future. We make the future better than the past. We don’t hide from history. We make history,” McCain said. “I understand the responsibilities I incur with this nomination, and I give you my word, I will not evade or slight a single one. Our campaign must be, and will be more than another tired debate of false promises, empty sound-bites, or useless arguments from the past that address not a single American’s concerns for their family’s security.”

Campaign Manager Rick Davis told reporters afterward that he was ecstatic about the victory, noting that they were “smallest campaign in history,” to win the nomination. Though he was also realistic about the prospects McCain faces against the more energized, better financed Democrats, arguing that they face another uphill climb to win in November.

He was also split on whether the prospect of a prolonged Democratic fight was good for McCain. While Davis acknowledged that the campaign would be able to raise more money if they had one rival and the ongoing race keeps them out of the headlines, he added that “if they spend all their money beating each other up, that is pretty good for us.”

McCain heads to Washington Wednesday morning to receive the endorsement of President Bush at the White House and address the Republican National Committee. Davis said the campaign is energized to be “drinking out of the firehose” that the RNC apparatus now provides—including fundraising infrastructure, voter research and polling data as well as a rapid response shop.

Obama Campaign Manager David Plouffe described Wisconsin as Senator Clinton’s ideal demographic for a win - blue collar and mostly white. Well, Barack Obama was declared the victor there today, and is likely to win Hawaii, the state where he was raised.  If that prediction is correct - Senator Obama will have won 10 straight contests over rival Hillary Clinton.

The Democratic frontrunner gave his “victory” speech in Houston tonight, in front of some 19,000 Texans. When the senator emerged onto the platform, the crowd greeted him with sustained applause. “You all know how to do it in Texas. Houston, I think we have achieved liftoff here,” he said with a smile.

Before he talked about today’s results, Obama asked each person present to vote early (Texas residents can vote prior to the March 4th primary) and to caucus - since the state has both.

Then, he declared victory. Watch the beginning of Senator Obama’s speech here:

And superstitions beware. For those keeping track, Senator Obama was too busy today to play basketball - an activity he did prior to his wins in Iowa and South Carolina and the draw with Senator Clinton on Super Tuesday.

The Obama campaign just sent out a pair of emails that Senator Obama won a “clear majority of Super Tuesday states” at 13, and that their candidate has won more delegates than Clinton in today’s 22 contests. That is why their victory is “crystal clear” as Senior Advisor told a gaggle of reporters following Obama’s Super Tuesday speech.

Listen to Axelrod on Clinton’s prediction weeks ago that the nomination would be sewn up tonight, on what the American people should take away from today’s results, and on their “victory.”

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: