Barack Obama had to wait several hours last night to get some good election news, as first he was blown out in Kentucky, but then was the easy winner in Oregon, giving him a majority of the pledged Democratic delegates and reducing his magic number to under 100.

Obama eschewed the states that voted on Tuesday and instead convened a rally in Des Moines, Iowa, where he marked his initial victory this year, as he again previewed his November election message.

"Iowa, change is coming!" Obama said to scream and cheers.

(I will note for the record that it was 63 degrees at game time in Des Moines, only about 70 degrees warmer than when I was there the first few days of January.)

Despite a lot of talk about not declaring that he had a majority of the pledged delegates, Obama did exactly that, getting a big cheer from the crowd, as they sensed that this race is slowly but surely coming to a close.

I could just sense some Clinton people grabbing their remote and chucking it at the TV and then furiously switching the tube off, before running over to the fridge, putting ice in a glass and pouring themselves a tall, stiff drink.

Make it a double, Clinton supporters, because this race is only going one way, and that's towards the guy named Barack.

"Obama On Brink Of Nomination, Though Clinton Wins Kentucky," said the AP headline before any results had even been announced in Oregon.

In his Iowa speech (which was not one of his best by any means,) Obama said some nice things about Hillary Clinton and then used his free TV time on the cable networks to launch into a littany of slams at John McCain, mentioning the word "Bush" almost as much as "McCain."

"It's more of the same versus change.  It's the past versus the future," said Obama.

That is going to be a difficult argument for the McCain camp to deal with.  It's not the silver bullet argument by any means, but Obama can use that to club McCain repeatedly - and by linking President Bush to the GOP nominee as often as possible.

As Obama moved a few steps closer to the Democratic nomination, his campaign announced that he had raised over $31 million in April, much more than the $22 million brought in by Hillary Clinton and the $18 million chalked up by John McCain.

So, where does it leave us?  Like the end of a baseball season, we watch the teams play out the schedule, with some frantically and desperately trying to stay in the hunt.

Obama has almost won the Democratic title.  Clinton will play out the schedule and not admit defeat until Obama lays his delegate cards on the table.

We aren't very far from it officially being Obama v McCain.