Senator Barack Obama made another small step in the delegate contest with Hillary Rodham Clinton, his main rival for the Democratic Party nomination. Obama increased his small lead over Clinton by picking up nine delegates as Iowa held its caucus.

The outcome of the Iowa caucus increased Obama’s wining streak to three in a row. The Illinois senator received 179 county convention delegates, John Edwards had 82, while Clinton got 70.

Obama won 52 percent of the delegates elected at county conventions, compared with 32 percent for Clinton. About half the 14 delegates allocated to John Edwards in the caucus projections went Saturday to Obama.

Obama’s number of Iowa delegates climbed by nine. He’ll get a total of 25, Clinton will have to settle for 14, while Edwards will get 6.

The counting of the California Democrat primary, held on Feb. 5, also finished on Saturday. Here, Clinton increased her state pledged delegates total by two to 204, while Obama picked up five more to raise his total to 166.

With the delegates from Iowa and California distributed between the two Democratic presidential candidates, with 1,617 delegates Obama has a slight lead over Clinton’s 1,498 delegates according to the Associated Press.

It takes 2,025 to win the Democratic nomination.

Turning Away from the "Forces of Division”

While addressing a crowd in suburban Indianapolis on Saturday, Obama showed that he would like to put an end to the latest quarrels between his campaign and Clinton’s on racial issues. The Illinois senator emphasized the fact that it is time to turn away from the "forces of division”.

“We have different stories, but we have common dreams and common hopes," he said.

These statements came after Senator Obama distanced him self from the "inflammatory and appalling” remark of his Chicago pastor, who is now no longer a member of his campaign.

Chicago Reverend Jeremiah Wright said during one of his fiery sermons that Clinton has a great advantage over Obama in the race for the party nomination because of the color of her skin.

Rev. Wright continued a series of similar mistakes made by campaign members on both sides. Samantha Power, Obama’s former foreign policy aide, became “former” after calling Hillary Clinton “a monster”. On the other side, former New York Congresswoman Geraldine Ferraro, one of Clinton’s top supporters quit the campaign after she said that if Obama would have been a white man, he wouldn’t enjoy the recent success among voters.