The Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton campaigns are in a full court press in a spirited attempt to see who will outscore who for the most amount of votes and delegates in the 22 states holding presidential primaries and caucauses on Feb. 5.

However, the battle for the Democratic nomination is too-close-to-call in what is virtually a two-person contest between the candidate who would be the party's first African American standard bearer and the candidate who would be the party's first woman standard nominee.

Clinton appears to be the frontrunner early. While national polls show her with a slightly less than 10 percent lead, they also indicate that she has a double digit leads in California, New York and New Jersey.  Meanwhile, Obama has a big lead in Illinois, another state with a lot of delegates.

But that doesn’t necessary predict who will win, as polls showed in New Hampshire, where Obama was predicted to win that state’s primary but loss by a small margin.

"This will be a good tight race to the end," said Bob Mulholland, campaign advisor with the  California Democratic Party. 

With 6.6 million residents, Obama, a senator from Illinois, and Clinton, a senator from New York, along with third-place challenger, former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards, are all battling over California's 441 delegates.

"We will pick the winner because we're so big and it will reflect what is happening all over the country,” Mulholland said.  “California polls are the last to close and we're the ones everyone will be waiting to hear about." 

That rule stems out of Rev. Jesse L. Jackson's 1984 presidential run, when he fought the Democrats' winner-take-all rule, arguing that it disenfranchised voters who had not favored the candidate with the most ballots cast. 

As a direct result of Jackson's efforts, Obama would still be in the race if he can keep close to Clinton in the delegate count when the Super Tuesday results come in.

“The big thing that the media has ignored is the Democratic Party requires that all their primaries delegate delegates proportionally,” said Richard Katz, professor of political science at Johns Hopkins University.  “So even if one candidate comes out three or four points ahead, they may get the same number of delegates.”

Obama has a very real chance to secure the party nomination in the weeks to come, according to the civil rights leader's son, Rep. Jesse L. Jackson, Jr, who has endorsed Obama.

Obama, coming out of a landslide victory in South Carolina, has big momentum heading into Super Tuesday, Jackson said.            

"He's best positioned to get more votes," Jackson said.

The Illinois congressman said that the strong endorsements earlier this week from Caroline Kennedy, daughter of the slain President John F. Kennedy, and his brother, Sen. Ted Kennedy, should help the Illinois senator garner votes.

David Bositis, senior analyst, Joint Center for Economic and Political Studies, said he expects Obama to do well in southern states, like Georgia and Alabama, that have large African-American populations.

“At one point, Hillary was doing as well, if not better, among Blacks,” Bositis said. 

“So it’s not just about race.  But they think that the Clintons have introduced race into the campaign, which they did not like.”

Arnold Fleischmann is professor of political science at the University of Georgia in a sate where the Democratic candidates will be fighting for 103 delegates.

“As I listen to middle-class Black voters and liberal White voters, there’s support for Obama and real disgust with Clinton, and especially her husband,” he said. 

“Georgia has some experience with experienced Black officials who are capable of leading. So, it’s probably not that big of an obstacle for Georgians to vote for Obama.”

Clinton and Obama have been advertising heavily in the states with radio, television and print ads.

Katz said at this point the race is too close to call between Obama and Clinton.

“I think between now and Tuesday is a long time in politics, and it’s hard to assess what is going to happen given the unhappiness among Democrats with the way the Clinton campaign has comported itself and the Kennedy endorsement of Obama,” Katz said. 

“My guess is that although it will cost her some votes, but she will come out marginally ahead.”