NEW YORK — Two weeks before the final primary in their marathon battle, Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton were campaigning hard yesterday. Both were in Florida, but their goals could hardly have been more different — or said more about how each one hopes to bring their race to a close.

Obama, feeling sure of the Democratic nomination, was trying to stake an early claim to a state that could be crucial in the general election against Republican John McCain. Clinton, insisting she can still be her party's nominee, was making an impassioned plea for the state's disputed primary results to be counted.

Obama plans to compete in the final three primaries, in Puerto Rico, South Dakota and Montana, but is already moving into a general election plan that will take him to other critical swing states in the coming weeks.

Because of how the party allocates delegates, Obama almost certainly cannot win the nomination based on the 86 pledged delegates yet to be claimed in the final three contests. But his advisers estimate that he needs just 25 to 28 more superdelegates to come aboard by the end of the primaries to put him over the top. A separate tabulation by the Associated Press reached the same conclusion.

As for Clinton, aides said she has two immediate goals: to see the results of the Florida and Michigan primaries restored, and persuade the remaining uncommitted superdelegates that she would be the better candidate in November against McCain.

Clinton is counting on a meeting of the Democratic Party's rules committee May 31 to end the dispute over Michigan and Florida. Because the Democratic organizations in those states violated party rules by moving up their contests, they were stripped of the right to send delegates to the convention.

If the committee does not satisfactorily resolve the matter, the New York senator indicated yesterday she would support a drawn-out battle that could go to the party's convention in August. "Yes I will. I will, because I feel very strongly about this," Clinton said when asked whether her campaign would support Michigan and Florida if they press the issue into the summer.

Still, all signs overwhelmingly indicate that Obama will emerge as the party's standard-bearer.

A handful of superdelegate endorsements yesterday on top of primary results in Kentucky and Oregon have brought him within striking distance of claiming the nomination — the Illinois senator is 64 delegates from the 2,026 needed under Democratic Party rules.

Previous primary results touched off waves of superdelegate commitments. It was just a few yesterday. Privately, Obama strategists said they think a number are still inclined to wait until all the primaries are over as a gesture to the Clintons, who are major figures within the party.

Joe Andrew, a former DNC chairman and superdelegate who switched allegiance from Clinton to Obama, said that while Obama reaching the majority of pledged delegates was a symbolic moment, "delegates aren't just looking for moments. They are looking for reasons to make a decision that many of them know is probably inevitable."

He added that until the race ends, "I think they will portray themselves as genuinely torn. I don't mean to say they are play-acting. I think most of them in their gut have made their decision. I think they are torn about how to explain that decision and when they should announce."