Obama focuses on McCain during Florida stop

By Jeff Mason

TAMPA, Florida (Reuters) - Barack Obama sounded like the probable Democratic presidential nominee on a visit to the November election battleground of Florida on Wednesday, praising rival Hillary Clinton and focusing his criticism on Republican foe John McCain.

Clinton also visited Florida, where she pressed ahead with her uphill Democratic race and demanded the state's delegates be seated at the August nominating convention despite a dispute with the national party.

The dueling visits came the day after split decisions in Oregon and Kentucky gave Obama a majority of pledged delegates won in the lengthy state-by-state nomination fight with Clinton -- a milestone he hopes marks a turning point in their battle for the right to face McCain in November.

"We are at the threshold of being able to obtain this nomination," Obama told a rally in Tampa, Florida.

Obama hopes the pledged-delegate milestone persuades more undecided superdelegates -- party officials who can back any candidate and will make the difference in the race -- to move his way.

A count by MSNBC gives him 1,961 total delegates to Clinton's 1,783, leaving him 65 short of the 2,026 needed to win the nomination at the Democratic Party convention in August.

A Reuters/Zogby poll showed Obama opening an 8-point national lead on McCain as the two geared up for their likely battle for the White House.

Clinton, a New York senator and former first lady, continued her fight to seat delegates from Michigan and Florida, where she won nominating contests that were not recognized by the national party.

Seating the delegates from those two contests at the convention would narrow Obama's lead in the delegate chase and bolster Clinton's argument to superdelegates.

"The people who voted did nothing wrong and it would be wrong to punish you," Clinton said in Boca Raton, Florida. "The rules clearly state we can count all these votes and seat all these delegates if we so choose."

Obama and Clinton did not campaign in Florida before the January vote. They signed pledges not to appear publicly in either Florida or Michigan because the states moved up the dates of the contests without national party approval.

PRAISE FOR CLINTON

Obama, making his first visit to Florida since signing the pledge, praised Clinton as he tried to heal any lingering Democratic wounds from their long nominating fight.

"Senator Clinton has run an outstanding campaign and she deserves our admiration and our respect," he said. "She has broken through barriers and will open up opportunity for a lot of people, including my two young daughters."

The Illinois senator also took several shots at McCain, criticizing the influence of lobbyists in his campaign and calling him a new version of President George W. Bush.