Obama wins Montana with nomination secured

Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.), having become the first black candidate to clinch a major party nomination earlier in the evening, finished the last of the 54 Democratic nominating contests with a win in Montana.

{mosads}The Montana win was the cherry on top for a candidate who saw superdelegates steadily moving his way all day Tuesday, pushing his presumed nomination to the point of inevitability.

Despite claiming more than the number of delegates needed to clinch the nomination, Obama did lose one of the two contests Tuesday, falling to rival Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) in South Dakota.

As the polls closed in Montana, the Obama campaign announced that another 26.5 superdelegates — including several members of Congress — were supporting his bid and putting him well over the magic number of 2,118 delegates needed to secure the nomination.