The exhausting Democratic presidential odyssey is nearing its end with Senator Barack Obama poised to clinch the nomination and with Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton probably still thinking that she started the campaign as the strong favorite.

Despite the fact that the contests that will be held in South Dakota and Montana on Tuesday are the last of the primary-season, they won’t decide the Democratic candidate for White House, but will surely make way for numerous super delegates — members of Congress and other party leaders —to support Obama and push him past the threshold of 2,118 delegates needed to clinch the nomination. The process could decide the winner of the contest in just a few days.

Obama said that, once the primary-season ends, “it's in everybody's interest” to resolve the problem of the Democratic nominee as quickly as possible. The Illinois senator said there are only three months until the Democratic convention and there is a lot of work to be done until then, especially in terms of bringing the party together, The Associated Press reported.

In his interview with the AP, Obama mentioned that numerous superdelegates have manifested their support for him, but only in private because they wanted to respect the process by not endorsing any candidate until the final primaries were done.

"We're still working the phones and we're still talking to people ... so we'll certainly have to wait until a little later tonight to see what the final tally is, but we certainly feel good waking up this morning," said Robert Gibbs, Obama's communication director, according to CNN.

Three uncommitted senators - Tom Harkin (Iowa), Thomas R. Carper (Del.) and Ken Salazar (Colo.) – gathered on Capitol Hill on Monday to talk about a quick conclusion to the Democratic race, but Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (Nev.) convinced them to delay the announcement until the counting of the votes is done.

However, prominent Democrats forecasted that the members of Congress will unite around Obama's candidacy before weekend.