Obama: Progress in red states

CHICAGO - Sen. Barack Obama said he had succeeded in expanding the electoral map in his race against Sen. John McCain, principally in Southern and Southwestern states but also in Montana and North Dakota.

"It doesn't mean we're going to win all those states, but at least we're making it a contest and giving voters something to choose from," he said in an interview aboard his campaign jet on the way back from an overseas trip.

"Virginia, North Carolina and Georgia are all states where we are competitive," he said, adding that he is going "toe to toe" with his rival in New Mexico, Colorado and Nevada.

Before leaving Europe on Saturday, Obama said he might suffer a small drop in the polls after being out of the country for more than a week. In the Associated Press interview and an appearance on NBC's

Meet the Press

, he indicated he intends to shift his focus quickly toward the economy and other domestic issues in the coming days.

Depending on actions that the administration and Congress take, he told the Associated Press, a new economic stimulus package may be his first legislative request if he takes office as the 44th president in January. He previously has called for additional tax rebates and other measures to help revive the economy, and intends to convene a meeting on the subject today in Washington.

With little pause after his trip to two war zones, the Middle East and Europe, Obama resumes campaigning this week in the swing states with stops in Missouri and Iowa as well as a fund-raising visit to Texas.

One month before the Democratic National Convention opens, he declined to say whether he had interviewed any potential running mates.

Obama sidestepped when asked whether a peace accord is possible in the Middle East before another election is held in Israel, where Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is weakened by a corruption investigation.

"It's hard for me to gauge Israeli politics right now," he said, although he added that Olmert had moved forward "in a serious way" with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas since a meeting sponsored by the Bush administration in Annapolis, Md.

While in the Middle East last week, Obama met with both men and said both sides struggled with internal political problems.

Whatever the short-term impact of his trip, Obama told a group of minority journalists at a Unity conference in Chicago that the longer-term impact will be positive.

"In terms of me governing, being an effective president, that trip was helpful, because I think I've established relationships and a certain bond of trust with key leaders around the world who have taken measure of my positions and how I operate, and I think can come away with some confidence that this is somebody I can deal with," he said.

While Obama was overseas, his campaign announced additional staff in key states as the fall campaign approached.

"So far at least we've been successful in places that nobody guessed would be successful," he said in the AP interview.

"We have a big map that we're playing with. That's no accident. We said at the beginning of this campaign that one of the changes we'd like to make in our politics was breaking out of this red-blue state divide and going to places that maybe no one has gone to for a while and trying to make the case for change," he said.