Barack Obama has proven to be strong campaigner and has a assembled a remarkable team that knows how to bring out the voters to the polls. He is a superb orator, echoing the voices of JFK and Martin Luther King when it comes to stirring the passions of voters.

Hillary Clinton, long considered the front-runner before the actual voting started, is in the political fight of her life. Her name recognition and the political machine engineered by her husband in the 1990s was thought to be enough to carry her to the nomination and beyond.

Many party faithful thought the race would be determined by February 5, "Super Tuesday." Clinton herself acknowledged as much in December, focusing her campaign strategy and financing to deliver a knockout blow to Obama on February 5. When the dust cleared, the Obama campaign had withstood the Clinton storm and it was essentially an even race.

2,025 delegates are needed to secure the Democrats' presidential nomination. Obama has pulled ahead in the delegate pledges with 1,262 compared to 1,213 for Clinton. The real battle may lie in the murky count of 'superdelegates.' Obama trails Clinton in this important group 160 to 235. Many political observers fear that these superdelegates, who can switch their votes with no regard to voter results in their states, will be the final determiners of the party's choice at the convention. The backroom brawls of the past may again be a factor in determining the presidential race. With Bill Clinton lurking in his wife's shadow, Democrats are familiar with his often bare-knuckles approach to internal party politics. His knowledge of the political landscape may give the edge to Hillary as the convention draws closer.

Another element of intrigue looming in the distance is a virtually guaranteed challenge by the Clinton camp on the status of the Florida and Michigan delegates. The national party ruled not to seat them at the convention because the state parties elected to move their primaries ahead of the arranged schedule. While the national Democratic party has the right to make such a ruling, it remains to be seen if will hold up in the heat of battle and in the courtroom. Many pundits are predicting that these two states will have another primary in June to determine delegates admitted to participate in the convention. If so, be prepared for the biggest, most brutal, most expensive election in history.

Unlike the GOP race, this contest is a long way from being finished.