Illinois Sen. Barack Obama will officially capture the Democratic presidential nomination soon after next week’s final primaries, the Illinois senator’s top campaign aide, David Axelrod, is predicting.

In an interview with the New York Daily News, Obama’s campaign adviser said that after the June 3 primaries in South Dakota and Montana, Obama will “be at the number we need to claim the nomination.”

“We’re very close now,” Axelrod said.

“When the primaries end, I think, we’ll be where we need to be. We’ll be at the number we need to claim the nomination.”

Barack Obama is closing in on victory over Hillary Clinton.

Obama is just 52 delegates shy of clinching the Democratic nomination while Clinton is 246 short. There are still 86 pledged delegates up for grabs in the remaining three contests - Puerto Rico, where Clinton is favored, votes June 1, ahead of South Dakota and Montana, where Obama has the edge.

Over 200 superdelegates are still publicly undeclared.

Obama is unlikely to clinch the nomination with pledged delegates alone, but his campaign has said it expects enough superdelegates will declare their support of the frontrunner soon after the final two primaries.

Axelrod’s comments come days after Bill Clinton said “they” are trying to “push and pressure and bully” superdelegates to make up their minds.

He did not expound on who “they” are while discussing this conspiracy theory, but he did sound pretty upset, convinced Hillary is a victim of media bias.

The former president also suggested Sunday that if the New York Senator and former First Lady - who is also the subject of Vice President talk - were to end the primary season with a lead in the popular vote, it would be a key development that superdelegates would have to consider.

Hillary is campaigning hard in Puerto Rico in an effort to narrow the popular vote gap - the last glimmer of hope she has remaining.

If Michigan and Florida popular votes were somehow counted, Clinton would have a slim lead over Obama as of right now. But since the Democratic party nixed those races in the first place, and his name did not appear on the Michigan ballot, that’s an awfully big stretch at best and a moot point at worst.

For his part, Barack Obama is already looking ahead to November’s general election, campaigning out West in some of the “purple states” that Democrats lost narrowly in 2004, but believe they have a shot at this November.

Especially (sorry Hillary) if Obama is heading the ticket.