"It's going to take a while for this to sink in," Axelrod said as he flew here, where Obama would declare himself the Democratic presidential nominee. "It's almost surreal we're at this moment. I'm proud of him, and I'm proud of the country."

Arriving from Chicago, the 46-year-old Illinois senator celebrated his new and historic status as the Democrat's presumptive presidential nominee on the spot where his Republican rival, John McCain, will accept his party's nod this summer.

Obama, the first major party presidential nominee of color, in the prepared text of a speech he planned to deliver Tuesday night called his win "a defining moment" for the nation. Even some of his longtime supporters seemed stunned by the end of a campaign that has made Obama, an obscure state legislator just four years ago, his party's standard-bearer.

"He has energized voters like I have not seen since the '60s," said House Majority Whip James Clyburn, a South Carolina Democrat who made his support for Obama official on Tuesday. "He has helped draw a new map for the Democratic party."

In his prepared remarks released by the campaign in advance of his speech at the Xcel Energy Center, site of the GOP convention in August, Obama drew a series of sharp contrasts with McCain. He suggested that his Republican rival's preoccupation with the Iraq war has made him insensitive to the nation's domestic economic needs.

Obama's choice of the Republicans' convention hall for his final primary night party was meant to symbolize what party leaders say is a hallmark of Obama's campaign — his ability to compete in territory once foreclosed to Democrats.

Obama will underscore his determination to compete beyond the usual Democratic strongholds later this week. He's scheduled two stops in Virginia, a state that hasn't voted for a Democratic presidential candidate since 1964.

In Minnesota, Obama is trying to reclaim a one-time Democratic stronghold that has trended Republican in recent years. In 2004, Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry edged President Bush by just 3 percentage points.

Obama also is making an effort to win over Democratic loyalists who supported his chief rival for the nomination. His comments about his rival Hillary Rodham Clinton have grown more conciliatory every day this week, and Tuesday night he complimented both her and former president Bill Clinton.

"I am a better candidate for having had the honor to compete with Hillary Rodham Clinton," he said in his prepared speech.

Obama will share a stage with Clinton this morning. The two are scheduled to make back-to-back speeches to Jewish activists at the American Israel Political Action Committee's annual legislative conference in Washington.

On the schedule, a five-minute introduction separates Obama's speech from Clinton's.

While Obama poured on the compliments for his former rival, he put the Republican Senate colleague McCain in the crosshairs. As he does in almost every one of his speeches, Obama acknowledged McCain's military service, which included more than five years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam. But he suggested that McCain has not returned the favor. "I respect his many accomplishments even if he chooses to deny mine," said Obama in his prepared remarks.

Obama's not planning to spend much time off the road. He's returning to his hometown of Chicago for strategy sessions this weekend, but aides said he will be back on the trail soon. "We're going to celebrate tonight, and then we're going to wake up tomorrow and start all over again," Axelrod said.

		Democratic presidential hopeful, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., and wife Michelle are introduced at an election night rally Tuesday in St. Paul By Morry Gash, AP

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