Like storm, Obama headed for Florida?

by John McCormick

ALBUQUERQUE - As Sen. Barack Obama's campaign debated whether to fly the candidate Monday evening from the desert Southwest to central Florida, the exact path of Tropical Storm Fay remained unknowable.

A similar feeling of uncertainly enveloped his traveling road show, as it awaits an announcement on who Obama will pick as his running mate.

Only a select few of the Illinois Democrat's top advisors know when - much less who - he will name as his running mate, although an announcement seems likely by this weekend at the latest.

"Most of us revel in the fact that we don't know," said Jen Psaki, Obama's traveling press secretary.

Psaki said she is simply going about her daily routine - if life on the road can be described that way - and does not know how much notice she will get before an announcement.

For the reporters traveling in Obama's bubble, the uncertainty around the impending announcement amounts to a feeling even more so than usual of waiting around for news to happen.

On Tuesday, Obama is scheduled to address a convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, a group Republican Sen. John McCain spoke to on Monday.

In both of his events here Monday, Obama took a tougher tone against McCain, who has dominated the news cycles in recent days as Obama vacationed last week in Hawaii.

But Obama was also challenged by a party activist at an afternoon town hall-style event who suggested that she has lost confidence in him because of what she perceives as some of his recent moves to the political center.

"When you came out against the war early, we celebrated you," said the woman, who identified herself as a ward chairman with the county Democratic Party. "When you talked about bringing the troops home, we backed you. And then you have back-peddled and compromised a little bit, on we're going to send the troops to Afghanistan instead of bringing them home, and then there was the FISA bill that you compromised on."

Then, the woman asked her question: "Are you going to set an agenda of change, or one of compromise with what the Republican minority is going to allow you to do in the Congress?"

Obama responded, "You're feisty and I like that, but you're wrong." He went on to explain how his early opposition to the invasion of Iraq was in part tied to his belief that it would be a distraction to the war on terrorism in Afghanistan and why he supported recent modifications to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

During the gathering with an audience his campaign said totaled about 1,800, Obama took repeated shots at McCain, including for a statement he made over the weekend where he defined "rich" as people making more than $5 million.

"I guess this explains why his tax plan gives hundreds of thousands of dollars in tax breaks to people making more than $2.5 million, because I guess they're middle class," Obama said, before jokingly asking how many in the audience made that much.

"He's going to be looking out for them, but he's not looking out for most of the people in this auditorium," Obama said, as he spoke from high school gym.

Obama painted McCain as being out of touch with the nation's current economic problems.

"Mr. McCain, let me explain to you the economic disaster is happening right now," he said. "Maybe you haven't noticed."

Then, he challenged McCain on some things Obama also rarely does now in his own life.

"This guy obviously does not pump his own gas," Obama said. "He obviously doesn't do his own shopping. He's obviously not paying his own bills. The economic disaster is here right now and ... the choice we have in this election is are we going to keep on doing the same things as John McCain is promoting or are we going to bring about a fundamental change in this country?"

McCain's campaign responded with a statement that tried to suggest Obama is turning up the heat because he is struggling to gain ground.

"After being upstaged at the Saddleback Compassion Forum, Barack Obama has adjusted his stump remarks into a hysterical litany of political attacks," McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds said in a statement. "Whether he is opposing additional drilling during an energy crisis, proposing job killing tax increases on small businesses during a weak economy or fussing about the rigors of campaigning, Barack Obama has not shown the judgment, experience or strength needed in our next President."

Obama, meanwhile, also charged that Republicans are attacking him in the same way Sen. John Kerry was in 2004.

"Just as John McCain has embraced George Bush's policies, he's embraced his politics," Obama said. "The same people that brought you George Bush are now trying to package John McCain."

Obama mentioned a new book by the same author of one attacking Kerry in 2004 that he said tries to present him as "a nut."

In trying to rally the Democratic audience, Obama reminded them that a win in November will not come easily.

"You'd think, given how badly Bush and his folks have performed over the last eight years, and considering the fact that John McCain has facilitated and worked with the Bush administration on this disaster, you'd like to think that folks would just say, 'Well, you know, we don't even have to run TV ads, you just open up the newspapers and say, we're going to throw the bums out," he said. "But, you know, American politics is never that easy. We've got to work hard. We've got to earn this election."

Shouting at times despite suffering from a cold, Obama seemed more fired up than he has much of the summer.

Before the afternoon event, Obama met with Native American leaders, a group he also courted during the primary season.

Obama was joined this afternoon by New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, who the presidential candidate described as "one of the best governor's in the country."

After rattling off some of Richardson's past governmental posts, Obama added, "He can't fit everything on one resume."

New Mexico is one of the western states Obama's campaign is aggressively targeting. Besides Obama, Sen. Hillary Clinton also campaigned in the state on Sunday.

If nothing else, Obama's three-day swing through western states has been good for his campaign finances. He raised $7.8 million - a single-day record -- in about three hours during a series of fundraisers Sunday evening in San Francisco.