Message #69749

[Kara Sundstrom]

Obama told reporters he decided he needed to address the joint ticket issue because Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, kept bringing it up.

"The Clintons have spent all weekend talking about it, so I wanted to make sure there wasn't any ambiguity about it," he said during a stop at a Columbus diner.

Obama, who would be the first black U.S. president, is heavily favored in Tuesday's Mississippi contest, the next showdown in his back-and-forth duel with Clinton.

Black voters, who have backed Obama heavily, may account for more than half the Democratic primary voters on Tuesday.

Obama hopes to add to his almost insurmountable lead in pledged delegates who will help decide the nominee. Mississippi has 33 pledged delegates at stake.

Neither Obama nor Clinton is likely to reach the 2,025 delegates needed to clinch the nomination without help from nearly 800 "superdelegates" -- party officials and insiders free to back any candidate.

The states of Michigan and Florida, which were stripped of their delegates in a dispute with the national party and held unsanctioned contests, also could figure in a final resolution to the tight race.

Officials in both states have discussed redoing their contests so they would produce delegates to the convention, but the candidates, the state parties and national party would have to agree on the timing, funding and formats.

State and national party leaders have shown interest redoing the votes by mail, a less expensive option.

The next big showdown after Mississippi will be in Pennsylvania on April 22.

- Reuters