Obama, Clinton Fundraisers Looking to Fall Together

WASHINGTON, May 18, 2008— -- Sen. Hillary Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama may be locked in a state-by-state battle for the Democratic presidential nomination, but with no end in sight, the party's fundraisers aren't wasting any time.

ABC News has learned that fundraisers for the two candidates are discussing how to merge their war chests into a single campaign focused on taking on Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona in November.

Each party eventually unifies its donor base, but what makes this move unusual is that the campaign is still hard-fought and relations are strained. The Clinton campaign confirmed the move, saying, "We believe Hillary Clinton will be that nominee."

Talk of a joint war chest comes as the two candidates prepare for an expected split decision in the primaries being held Tuesday.

Clinton will be in Kentucky, where the New York senator is expected to win handily.

Obama is expected to take Oregon, where he saw his largest-ever crowd of 75,000 today in Portland. But the Illinois senator won't be in either state.

"My opponent said he wasn't coming back so I have the whole state to myself," Clinton said during an appearance in Kentucky. "What a treat!"

Obama will be in the general election battleground of Iowa, where he's fighting on another front -- against McCain.

"In George Bush's and John McCain's America, you have to fend for yourself," Obama said today in Oregon.

McCain already has an ad on the air there, in which the voiceover chides the Democrats, saying, "While Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama argue and fight with each other, John McCain leads."

In Iowa on Tuesday, Obama is expected to hint at an inevitable victory against Clinton. But it's a delicate tightrope to walk. He needs Clinton's supporters to rally behind him.

"He wants to be able to convince everybody that the nomination is his, that it's now just formality," said Norman Ornstein, political analyst at the American Enterprise Institute. "The last thing that would serve his interests is to look as though he's dancing on Hillary Clinton's political grave."