WASHINGTON, D.C. - The first direct shots of the 2008 general election campaign rang out last week.

Sen. Barack Obama, almost certainly the Democratic presidential nominee, started it Thursday with his musing that Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, was "losing his bearings'' as his criticism of Obama escalated.

Within hours, McCain aide Mark Salter issued a blistering response, calling Obama's choice of words "a not particularly clever way of raising John McCain's age as an issue.''

Game on!

Sen. Hillary Clinton may still be in the Democratic race, but Obama all but wrapped up the party's nomination on Tuesday. The McCain and Obama campaigns are now focusing - rhetorically, financially and organizationally - on the long march to November.

McCain, who wrapped up the GOP nomination in March, has been prepping a bit longer. He's raised money, united his party and tried to define himself before his opponents can. He's had some success: He worked out a deal with the Republican National Committee and state parties that will allow donors to cough up as much as $70,000 to help his election effort. And while his fundraising remains anemic compared with Obama's, it's getting better: The campaign raised a reported $7 million Thursday night at a New York fundraiser.

McCain also has had a good run of press coverage, including generally positive reviews of his trip last month to poor areas of the South and Midwest. Next week, McCain will brandish his environmental credentials with a swing through the Pacific Northwest. Such trips are designed to help McCain among independent voters in swing states.

Through it all, McCain's been critical of Obama and Clinton, but Obama has been the focus. Reporters covering McCain get the sense that while he genuinely likes and respects Clinton, he views Obama as something of a callow poseur.

The McCain camp will argue that, in what many see as a "change'' election, its candidate matches up well with Obama.

"The American people in the general election will have as one of their choices a proven leader who rises above partisan politics, who works across party lines at his own political risk to accomplish things on big

issues, who by doing this as president … will unite the American people,'' Charlie Black, a top McCain strategist, told reporters recently. "Of course, the choice that I mention is not Barack Obama, but John McCain. … The difference is John McCain has a proven record.''

Meanwhile, Obama's campaign on Saturday will roll out a national voter registration drive with more than 100 kickoff events in cities across the country. Obama also is seeking applicants for a summer-long fellowship program in which college students and others would commit to 30 hours per week of unpaid campaign work to build momentum for Obama heading into the fall.

Campaign manager David Plouffe and strategist David Axelrod identified various states that President Bush won in 2000 and 2004, but where, because of demographics and the rise of lower-ticket Democratic officials, they think Obama could win in the fall.

Obama takes superdelegate lead

Obama erased Clinton's once-imposing lead among superdelegates Saturday when he added more endorsements from the group of Democrats who will decide the party's nomination for president.

Obama added superdelegates from Utah and Ohio, as well as two from the Virgin Islands who had previously backed Clinton.

The additions enabled Obama to surpass Clinton's total for the first time in the campaign. He had picked up nine endorsements Friday.

The milestone is important because Clinton would need to win over the superdelegates by a wide margin to claim the nomination.

They are a group that Clinton owned before the first caucus, when she was able to cash in on the popularity of the Clinton brand among the party faithful.

Those party insiders, however, have been steadily streaming to Obama since he started posting wins in early voting states.

"I always felt that if anybody establishes himself as the clear leader, the superdelegates would fall in line,'' said Don Fowler, a former chairman of the Democratic National Committee.

The Associated Press contributed to this report