Obama Wins in Oregon and Clinton Prevails in Kentucky

Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) has won the Oregon primary hours after Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) claimed an easy victory in Kentucky's Democratic presidential primary, a split result likely to keep Obama in the driver's seat in the waning weeks of the battle for the nomination.

Less than 15 minutes after polls closed in Oregon at 11 p.m. Eastern time, all three major television networks as well as the Associated Press had called the contest for Obama. In Kentucky, Clinton trounced Obama, 65 percent to 30 percent, with all precincts reporting.

Clinton's Kentucky win is her second in as many weeks. She defeated Obama by 41 points last Tuesday in West Virginia, a victory largely overshadowed by former North Carolina senator John Edwards's endorsement of Obama less than 24 hours later.

At a rally in Louisville this evening, Clinton called the vote in Kentucky "an overwhelming vote of confidence" and promised, as she did after her win in West Virginia, to continue on in the primary process.

"We're winning the popular vote and I'm more determined than ever to see that every vote is cast and every ballot is counted," Clinton said. Left unsaid is the fact that her math only works out if the primary results in Michigan and Florida -- where none of the Democratic candidates actively campaigned -- are counted. The Democratic National Committee has discounted those results because Michigan and Florida violated party rules in scheduling the primaries early in the primary season.

Obama's campaign sent an email to supporters roughly 30 minutes before he took the stage in Iowa tonight. claiming that he had secured a majority of all pledged delegates available in the nomination fight.