As a journalist who has covered Obama for 19 months now, I have heard him deliver more speeches than I can count. I know when he's tired he goes long – like 90 minutes long – rambling through oft-repeated points and stories. I've seen him address crowds of 80,000 and rooms of less than 100. And after a while you become immune to his prose and tune in only to new wrinkles.

Obama spent today giving curtailed speeches in respect to Hurricane Gustav. But tonight, in front of a Milwaukee audience of 14,000, invoking both the Bible and Thoreau, he was as good as I've ever heard him. He spoke for just over 14 minutes but he left the audience roaring. Here are excerpts of the last five minutes. I will endeavor to post the audio.

Update:
Here is the audio.

That spirit of looking out for one another, that core value that says I am my brothers' keeper, I am my sister's keeper, that spirit is most evident during times of great tragedy, it's most evident during times of great hardship, it's most evident when natural disasters strike because we understand that only God has control and so it takes it out of the realm of politics. We all understand that we have to come together.

But that spirit can't just be restricted to moments of great catastrophe. Because as I stand here today and look out at the thousands of folks who have gathered here today, I know that there's some folks that are going through their own quiet storms.

[…]

There're people out there who've seen their jobs shipped overseas. There're people out there who don't have healthcare, maybe they've been trying to pay it on a credit card but mostly they've just been putting off trying to see a doctor. There're seniors out there that don't know how they're going to pay their home heating bill this winter. There are folks out there that don't know how they're going to fill up the gas tank. There are young people in this audience right now that have graduated from high school, have the grades and want to go to college, but don't have the money. There are young people being born in the inner cities, right here in Milwaukee, that don't see any prospects for the future that think the only path available to them is a casket or a jail cell.

All across America there are quiet storms taking place. There are lives of quiet desperation. People who need just a little bit of help. Now, Americans are a self-reliant people, we're an independent people. We don't like asking somebody else to do what we can do ourselves but you know what we understand is that every once in a while somebody's going to get knocked down. Every once in a while somebody's going to go through some hard times. When we least expect it tragedy may strike. And what has always made this country great is the understanding that we rise and fall as one nation, that values and family, community and neighborhood, they have to express themselves in our government. Those are national values. Those are values that we all subscribe to. And so that the spirit that we extend today and in the days to come as we monitor what happens on the Gulf that's the spirit that we've got to carry with us each and every day. That's the spirit that we need in our own homes and it's the spirit that we need in the White House. And that's why I'm running for president of the United States of America.

Because if there's a poor child out there, that's my child. If there's a senior that's having trouble, that's my grandparent. If there's a guy who's lost his job, that's my brother. If there's a woman out there without healthcare, that's my sister. Those are the values that built this country. Those are the values we are fighting for.

Would Sally Quinn write this if the candidate in question were the father, not the mother?:

Not only do we have a woman with five children, including an infant with special needs, but a woman whose 17-year-old child will need her even more in the coming months. Not to mention the grandchild. This would inevitably be an enormous distraction for a new vice president (or president) in a time of global turmoil. Not only in terms of her job, but from a media standpoint as well.

TIME's Nathan Thornburgh spends some time in Alaska, and finds out what everyone already knew was none of their business:

It was, more or less, an open secret. And everyone was saying the same thing: the governor's 17-year-old daughter is pregnant, the father is her boyfriend, and it's really nobody's business beyond that. . . . People in Wasilla are Alaskan tough, so not only does a thing like teen pregnancy not seem like anyone's damn business, but it's also not seen as the calamity so many people in the lower 48 might think it is. This is dangerous country — it's not just the roughneck jobs on cable reality shows. It's real life here. I listened to the absolutely heartbreaking story of how the godfather of Track Palin, Sarah's oldest son, died in small plane crash just minutes after having dropped off four kids. Another family invited me into their home and told their incredible story; with one son in Iraq, their other son was working on a conveyor line in Anchorage, got caught in the belt and had his head partially crushed. He lived to stand across the kitchen table from me and his parents, looking fully healed just three months later, grinning at his dumb luck and wondering what comes next in life. "It makes you realize that a thing like a little teenage pregnancy isn't such a big deal," his mom said. "Bristol—and lots of other girl like her out there — are going to be just fine."

Read the whole story here.

As other bloggers have noted, Sarah Palin seems not to be a keen student of American history, as evidenced by this answer in a questionaire during her 2006 race for governor in Alaska:

11. Are you offended by the phrase “Under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance? Why or why not?

Palin: Not on your life. If it was good enough for the founding fathers, its good enough for me and I'll fight in defense of our Pledge of Allegiance.

You have to admire the gusto with which Palin aligned herself with the Founding Fathers in spirited defense of the Pledge and the "under God" phrase, despite the fact that both were written long after the founders (and the framers, for that matter) were dead and buried. My guess is she was conflating one conservative conviction, adherence to "original intent" when interpreting the Constitution, with another, the belief that the separation of church and state has gone too far. If so, her confusion is not limited to the history of the Pledge.

In all fairness, it's important to remember that such questionaires are sometimes "answered" by campaign aides, not the candidates themselves. But Palin's answers seem to have the voice of the candidate; they're much more colorful than those of her opponents. Either way, the result suggests that campaigning in Alaska is not exactly trial-by-fire preparation for the Big Show.

Every place has its own rules, but this was a first for me.

On the way in to the convention hall today, I talked Jay Carney and Michael Duffy into making a detour to my favorite breakfast spot anywhere, Hell's Kitchen in downtown Minneapolis. (As usual, there was a long wait, but it was worth it.)

I had planned to surprise my other colleagues here at the workspace with a jar of the restaurant's homemade peanut butter, but it got confiscated by security. Why? The screeners told me they were afraid I might throw the (plastic) jar at someone. My loaf of bread made it through, but it looks sort of lonely.

Reposted as a comment on Jay N-S's original post. Apologies to her, and to the readers, for the sloppiness.

Monroe, Michigan

After making brief remarks on Hurricane Gustav at a Labor Day event in Monroe, Michigan, Obama was asked about Bristol Palin's pregnancy.
"I have said before and I will say it again: I think people's families are off limits and I think people's children are especially off limits," he said.
He encouraged reporters chasing the story to "back off."
Asked about the unnamed McCain advisor's accusation that the Obama campaign is behind the rumors about Trig Palin, Obama said, "I am offended by that statement. There is no evidence at all that this involves us."
He pledged to fire any staffer that is found out to be spreading the rumors. After all, Obama noted, his mother had him when she was 18.

The convention itself has been abbreviated, but the protests haven't. And it's getting ugly. Our colleague Jennifer Outler just called to say that she got within a few blocks of the hall and had to turn around, because dozens of people--dressed in black, and with their faces covered--were throwing what appeared to be bricks. Police advised her to leave the area.

My story out today on Obama and Biden's chemistry.

After the jump, the hurricane donation solicitation that Obama sent to his enormous email and text list -- though I am subscribed to both and haven't yet received it myself. (Though I did give. You should, too! Go here for lots of info, to "register safe" and see who's already done so, etc.)

Working on finding out how much they've raked in.

UPDATE: Just to make things even easier: You can give $5 to the disaster relief fund by texting “GIVE” to “2HELP” (24357). This works for customers of Alltel, AT&T, Sprint-Nextel, T-Mobile and Verizon Wireless.

UPDATE 2: 1:37CST Just got my solicitation email. Whew!

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