Is it the Pope? An astonishing 75,000 turn out to hear Obama speak

The size of the crowd in Portland, Oregon –- the equivalent to one-sixth of the city’s entire population – staggered even the Democrat frontrunner.

Spectators filled a waterfront park and thousands more watched from outside the  gates and piled into boats lined up along the river in a massive display of support for the Illinois senator who hopes to virtually lock up his party's White House nomination after tomorrow’s vote.

On a roll: Barack Obama, with his wife Michelle holding daughter Sasha, 6, as they wave to a sea of supporters at a rally in Portland, Oregon

He is expected to win easily in Oregon, a liberal hotbed of anti-war activism  where polls say the wealthier white Democrat vote is solidly behind him.

‘If you vote for me,’ he told the raucous crowd, ‘we won’t just win Oregon - we will win this nomination.’

‘And you and I together, we’ll change this country, we’ll change the world.‘

By contrast, Hillary Clinton spoke to a crowd of about 1,000 on Saturday at a  distillery in Loretto, Kentucky, the other state voting tomorrow. Just 350  turned up for another weekend rally at Kentucky State University in Frankfort.

She hopes to repeat her landslide in West Virginia last week with a similar result in Kentucky, which also has mainly  white, low-income voters.

But she will still do little to dent  46-year-old Mr Obama’s growing lead in the delegate race. 

With just three primaries left after today, most Democrats believe that time has already run out for Mrs Clinton, 60, who needs a miracle to remain a viable  candidate.

Shoo in: Barack Obama smiles as he is introduced at a town hall meeting in Pendleton, Oregon, last night

Mr Obama was already talking about the former First Lady in the past tense today, saying: ‘She has been a formidable candidate. She has been smart and  tough and determined and she has worked as hard as she can. She has run an extraordinary campaign.’

In another clear sign that he considers his bruising nomination battle all but over, Mr Obama has already shifted his attention to his presumed Republican opponent John McCain, 71.

In a TV appearance today, he blasted Republicans for picking on his wife, Michelle.

‘These folks should lay off my wife,’ he said, referring to a ‘low class’  four-minute video posted on YouTube by the Tennessee Republican Party aiming to make political capital over Mrs Obama’s remark earlier this year that ‘for the first time in my adult lifetime I’m proud of my country.’

Critics claimed it sounded unpatriotic and suggested she had not been proud of  the U.S. before her husband’s candidacy.

Mrs Obama later claimed she meant she was proud of how Americans were engaging in the political process and that she had always been proud of her country.

Mr Obama also slammed Mr McCain for having Washington lobbyists as his top  advisers.

He was speaking out after Texas businessman Thomas Loeffler quit as Mr McCain’s  finance chief - the fifth senior aide to leave the campaign in recent days because of their links to special interest groups.

The former congressman, who was the McCain campaign’s national finance  committee chairman, has close ties to Saudi Arabia and Hong Kong.

‘Over the last several weeks John McCain keeps on having problems with his top  advisors being lobbyists, in some cases for foreign governments or other big  interests that are doing business in Washington,’ said Mr Obama.

A McCain speech in Chicago was interrupted today when three anti-Iraq war protesters stood up in the audience in the convention hall and sang, 'McCain is in the kitchen with George Bush.'

They wore pink aprons with a slogan on them: 'Don't buy Bush's war'.

They stunned the crowd into silence for a moment, but then members of the audience began booing and the demonstrators were led out.

Mrs Clinton was planning to be in Kentucky tomorrow night to milk one of her  final victories on the campaign trail that ends on June 3.

Mr Obama was heading  for Iowa for a celebration rally in the state where he scored his first victory  in January.

‘We thought it was a terrific way to kind of bring things full circle,’ he said.