A new phase to the Democratic race for the White House has begun, and many Democratic insiders fear it will be far uglier than the past few weeks. Campaigning has already begun in Pennsylvania, which doesn’t vote until April 22. On Wednesday, Senator Barack Obama painted himself as the frontrunner in the race.

Sen. Barack Obama: “We have won decisively in a whole number of states, and Senator Clinton and her campaign have tended to cherry-pick which states they think are important. But the bottom line is that we are in a very strong position. Senator Clinton barely dented the delegate count yesterday. We’re going on to Mississippi and Wyoming, where we feel confident that we can do well. And this process is going to ultimately be about who’s got the most delegates, and we think we’ll be in that position.”

Although Senator Hillary Clinton won the popular vote in Texas on Tuesday, Obama’s campaign is now predicting Obama will actually win the delegate battle in Texas once the primary and caucus results are combined. Despite being behind in pledged delegates, Clinton says she expects to prevail as the nominee.

Sen. Hillary Clinton: “Obviously, I believe that I’m going to win and I’m going to be the nominee, because I think two things will happen, I think, now that the race has really joined on who can be the commander-in-chief and who can be the president to deal with the economy and healthcare and the other important issues facing America.”