Senator Barack Obama has clinched the Democratic nomination for president of the United States, based on a conservative Associated Press tally of delegates.

The Associated Press is reporting that Obama is guaranteed to end the primaries today with enough delegates to secure the party’s nomination at the convention in August. Their tally is based on public and private commitments of support from unpledged delegates, as well as the minimum number of delegates Obama is guaranteed to win in today’s primaries in Montana and South Dakota, even if he were to lose to Senator Hillary Clinton in both states.

There have been conflicting reports during the day about the Clinton campaign’s plans tonight. The campaign strongly denies the initial reports that Clinton would acknowledge that Obama had secured enough delegates to win the nomination, but campaign officials are telling reporters anonymously that, in her election-eve speech tonight, Clinton will all but officially suspend her campaign for the nomination.

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