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ALBUQUERQUE, NM — While he focused on courting women voters at a local New Mexico bakery today, Obama wasn’t asked many questions on specific women’s issues. Instead, he was confronted with a central GOP talking point: is he all talk, or will he deliver on his campaign promises?

“You’re a very charismatic person,” said a young woman named Erin, an employee of Flying Star Bakery. “How do you keep yourself true to the things that you say? And if you are to become President, how are you going to follow through?”

The RNC immediately sent an email with a YouTube link to the question, which seemed to make their case that Obama has no real history of producing tangible results. In his response, however, Obama pointed not just to his record as a community organizer and a lawmaker and to his family — but also to his set of Lucky Charms.

“What I find, the longer I’m in politics, especially at this level, is that if you’re not actually getting something done then its probably not worth it, because I’m away from my daughters all the time and I’m away from my wife all the time,” he said. “The only way it makes it worthwhile is if I’m actually getting something done.”

While he’s become a mainstream celebrity, inspiring T-Shirts and rap songs, Obama says that desire to produce results trumps any star status he’s achieved. “If you’re not getting something done then its all just vanity, then its all just ‘oh I like being in the limelight’” he said. “All of us who get into politics probably at some point enjoy the attention, but what I find at least is the longer you’re in it the less cool it is.”

“I’ve gotten more than enough attention to last me a lifetime now,” he continued. “I’ve done Letterman, I’ve done the Daily Show, been on the cover of Rolling Stone.”

What motivates him to keep pushing for results? The people he meets on the campaign trail — many of whom come bearing gifts. “People are so generous to me investing their hopes in me,” he said — proceeding to put his hand in his pocket and draw out a handful of small trinkets. “I usually don’t show these in these town hall meetings,” Obama said. “I carry around all these — I have all these things that people give me. They’ll hand it to you and they’ll say I want you to be well but I want you to fight for me.”

The talismans include a small eagle given to him by a Native American, and what looked to be a guitar keychain, among other things. At least one of the Lucky Charms was coveted by adviser Robert Gibbs; the Obama communications director later tried to get his hands on a lucky poker chip as the campaign headed to Las Vegas for an event on energy on Tuesday.

Senator Barack Obama spoke to about 600 paying guests at a fundraising reception in downtown Jacksonville, where attendees paid between $500 and $2,300 to Barack Obama for America. The Illinois senator spoke for about twenty minutes to his devotees, and noted the clear choice this November on issues surrounding the economy, health care, the war, and overall philosophy.

“Most of all we can choose between hope and fear. It is going to be very difficult for Republicans to run on their stewardship of the economy or their outstanding foreign policy. We know what kind of campaign they’re going to run. They’re going to try to make you afraid. They’re going to try to make you afraid of me,” Obama said, just one day after he he told reporters that Republican 527 groups will emerge this election and run negative ads during the election.

Obama continued that the Republicans’ message would invoke the Democrat’s race. “He’s young and inexperienced and he’s got a funny name. And did I mention he’s black? He’s got a feisty wife,” Obama told the crowd, which cheered.

“We know the strategy because they’ve already shown their cards. Ultimately I think the American people recognize that old stuff hasn’t moved us forward. That old stuff just divides us,” he said.

Listen to audio from that fundraiser here:

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Before Barack Obama was the presumptive Democratic nominee - before he was even the frontrunner - the then long-shot candidate signed a pledge in February 2007 that if he would accept public financing in the general election if the Republican nominee agreed to do the same.

The candidate touted this pledge in a candidate’s questionnaire from the Midwest Democracy Network in November of last year. He wrote, “In February 2007, I proposed a novel way to preserve the strength of the public financing system in the 2008 election. My plan requires both major party candidates to agree on a fundraising truce, return excess money from donors, and stay within the public financing system for the general election….If I am the Democratic nominee, I will aggressively pursue an agreement with the Republican nominee to preserve a publicly financed general election.”

The candidate is opting out of some $84 million in public funds - he’ll be the first to do so since Congress passed the legislation in the 1970s. John McCain has recently taken steps to opt in and today his campaign jumped on Obama’s decision, saying he has “revealed himself to be just another typical politician who will do and say whatever is most expedient for Barack Obama.”

Of course Obama has raised more money than any other presidential candidate, raking in some $265 million (as of the end of April).

In a video taped message to supporters this morning, Obama made his announcement. “It’s not an easy decision, and especially because I support a robust system of public financing of elections, but the public financing of presidential elections as it exists today is broken, and we face opponents who’ve become masters at gaming this broken system.”

The last time Obama was asked about the issue was just one day after he secured the Democratic nomination. He told reporters, “We’re not going to unilaterally disarm, and we’ve already had John McCain’s campaign finance chairman, for example, boast about the amount of money that’s been raised by the Republican National Committee that can be used to help John McCain and attack me. I was very clear at the outset that I would not put ourselves in a position where third parties and independent groups are outspending the Democrats by substantial margins, and John McCain - who’s now the leader of the Republican Party - is, you know I’m going to want to hear from him some assurances that we could actually shut that down.”

Watch Obama’s message to supporters here:

UPDATED: 3 pm ET (per Mosheh Oinounou)

Reporters shouted questions at Sen. Obama as he arrived and exited his meeting with members of the Congressional Black Caucus near Capitol Hill Thursday, but the presumptive Democratic nominee did not respond, choosing only to smile and wave at the assembled press.

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HOUSTON, TX — As American consumers cope with more than $4-a-gallon gasoline, Sen. John McCain called for ways to increase the nation’s energy capacity, including lifting a ban on off-shore oil drilling, while also stressing the importance of conservation.

“America’s most vital interests call us to the mission of energy security, and so does our sense of honor. And the straightest, swiftest path to energy security is to produce more, use less, and find new sources of power — so that no commodity can determine our security, and no crisis can undermine our economy,” McCain said before a crowd of more than 300 supporters, local business leaders and a handful of oil company executives.

Among his major initiatives, as disclosed yesterday to reporters, is the removal of the federal moratorium on states’ abilities to explore and drill for oil and natural gas off of their coasts.

“For reasons that become less convincing with every rise in the price of foreign oil, the federal government discourages offshore production,” he said, calling for profit sharing between states and the federal government. “We have proven oil reserves of at least 21 billion barrels in the United States. But a broad federal moratorium stands in the way of energy exploration and production. And I believe it is time for the federal government to lift these restrictions and to put our own reserves to use…as a matter of fairness to the American people, and a matter of duty for our government, we must deal with the here and now, and assure affordable fuel for America by increasing domestic production.”

McCain has pounced on a popular issue with voters across the country–even though it is extremely unlikely that California or Florida, both states with known coastal deposits, will initiate any deep-water drilling.

The presumptive GOP nominee also attacked Sen. Obama for what he says is the revival of 60’s and 70’s ideas–a new favorite line on the stump–beating up his rival for opposing new domestic production and for his call for a windfall profits tax on oil companies.

“He supports new taxes on energy producers. He wants a windfall profits tax on oil, to go along with the new taxes he also plans for coal and natural gas. If the plan sounds familiar, it’s because that was President Jimmy Carter’s big idea too — and a lot of good it did us,” he said to a chorus of boos from the crowd. “Now as then, all a windfall profits tax will accomplish is to increase our dependence on foreign oil, and hinder exactly the kind of domestic exploration and production we need. I’m all for recycling — but it’s better applied to paper and plastic than to the failed policies of the 1970’s.”

For his part, Obama attacked McCain today for flipping on the the drilling issue, since the GOPer opposed off shore drilling during his 2000 race.

“This is yet another reversal by John McCain in terms of his earlier positions and I think we could set up an interesting debate between John McCain 2000 and John McCain 2008,” Obama told reporters. “The biggest problem with John McCain’s position is that it seems like a classic Washington political solution which is to go out there and make a statement without any clear evidence that this would result in strengthening the US economy or providing relief to consumers. There is no way that allowing offshore drilling would lower gas prices right now at best you’re looking at 5 years or more down the road and even the most optimistic assumptions indicate that offshore drilling might reduce the overall world price of oil by a few cents so this is not something that’s gonna give consumers short-term relief and it is not a long-term solution to our problems.”

The campaign says Tuesday’s address was the first in what will be a series of a speeches on energy.

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WASHINGTON, DC — Sen. McCain made a brief statement to reporters on the passing of NBC’s Tim Russert upon landing in DC Friday afternoon.

“I would like to just make a brief statement concerning the shocking news about the untimely death of a great journalist and a great American, Tim Russert.

Tim Russert was at the top of his profession. He was a man of honesty and integrity. He was hard but he was always fair. We miss him. My thoughts and prayers go out to his family and we know that Tim Russert leaves a legacy of integrity of the highest level of journalism and we will miss him and we will miss him a lot.

Again, he was hard, he was fair, he was at the top of his profession. He loved his country, he loved the Buffalo Bills and most of all he loved his family.”

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PEMBERTON, NJ — Sen. John McCain ripped the Supreme Court’s decision on Guantanamo Bay detainees Friday, calling the ruling “one of the worst decisions in history.”

“I think that it is it opens up a whole new chapter in interpretation of our constitution, that says that people who are not citizens of this country and are enemy combatants–some of them still ardently seeking to destroy the United States of America and all that we stand for and believe in–are now granted habeus corpus rights,” McCain said, refering to the 5-4 decision that found that foreign detainees have rights under the constitution to sue in civilian courts. “We will regret very much in the days and months and years ahead this decision by the United States Supreme Court.”

The presumptive GOP nominee, joined by Senators Joe Lieberman and Lindsey Graham at a press conference, said he plans to “exhaust” all legislative options to narrow the impact of the decision and will first take aim at “eliminating the frivolous suits, the complaints about diet or whatever, reading material, or whatever it is, and try to more narrowly define it.”

Sens. Lieberman and Graham also trashed the decision at the press conference.

McCain initially said he had “concerns” about the decision an hour after the ruling was released Thursday, but after a day to digest the ruling he took his language up a notch.

“Our first obligation is the safety and security of our nation and the men and women who defend it. This decision will harm our ability to do that,” McCain said at a town hall meeting prior to press conference, where he also took the opportunity to blast Obama’s judicial appointment philosophy.

“Senator Obama applauds this decision and he supports it…I strongly supported Justice Roberts and Justice Alito, Senator Obama opposed them and voted against them on ideological grounds, something which is precedent breaking from the past,” McCain said, noting that he had previously voted in Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer, who both supported the Court decision, even though he didn’t share their judicial philosophy.

NASHUA, NH — Sen. McCain continued to play a man of the people on high gas prices Thursday, taking Sen. Obama to task for saying this week that he would have preferred a more “gradual adjustment” in gas price increases.

“Let me say that Senator Obama said yesterday, well he didn’t seem to mind the cost increase, it was just a little too quick,” McCain told supporters at a Granite State town hall meeting. “Well, a lot of Americans mind.”

Asked by CNBC Tuesday if higher gas prices could help the U.S. become more energy efficient, Obama said, “I think that I would have preferred a gradual adjustment. The fact that this is such a shock to American pocketbooks is not a good thing.”

Republicans have been hammering Obama for the comments, arguing that the Illinois Democrat lacks sympathy for the plight of average Americans who are now paying more than $4 a gallon to fill up their gas tanks.

“I think I’d like to point out that Senator McCain is not out of touch with the pressure on gasoline prices,”  McCain adviser Doug Holtz-Eakin said a conference call today. “He proposed a gas tax suspension for the summer that would put $600 in the pocket of a trucker buying diesel fuel, take some of the pressure off the price increases of all the things that they deliver, help American families get through the summer.”

For it’s part, the Obama campaign is arguing that the GOP is taking the quote out of context.

“This attack is ridiculous, and all it shows is how John McCain’s allies in Washington are trying to distract voters from the fact that just yesterday, they voted again to protect Big Oil’s profits-while we’re paying record prices…. No amount of partisan political attacks will change the fact that George Bush, John McCain, and their congressional allies have repeatedly stood with the oil and gas companies and against American consumers,” Obama spokesperson Jen Psaki said yesterday.

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BOSTON, MA– One day after his campaign helped force the resignation of one senior member of Sen. Obama’s VP selection team, Sen. McCain took aim today at Eric Holder–another member of that group .

“I think it is a matter of record that Mr. Holder recommended the pardoning of Mr. (Marc) Rich. And all those things will be taken into consideration by the media and the American people, especially when you are entrusting individuals with one of the most important decisions that a presidential candidate can make before that individual is elected and that is who the running mate is,” McCain told reporters a press conference Wednesday, referencing Holder’s role at the Department of Justice in the Clinton administrations controversial pardoning of the financier.

His call comes less than 24 hours after Jim Johnson’s resignation as an Obama VP vetter, who came under scrutiny for loans he received from Countrywide–a shady mortgage lender that Obama criticized on the trail.

But McCain deferred comment today when asked about Johnson’s resignation, despite calling his involvement in Obama’s campaign a “contradiction” on Monday.

“On the resignations, or should-be resignations, I think people in the media and observers will make a decision as to whether these people, individuals should be part of Senator Obama’s campaign,” McCain said.

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BOSTON, MA  — Sen. McCain told reporters Thursday that the Supreme Court decision declaring that foreign terrorism suspects held at Guantanamo Bay have rights under the Constitution to use civilian courts, “concerns” him.

“I was just informed of the Supreme Court decision. I haven’t had a chance to read the opinion yet. It obviously concerns me. These are unlawful combatants, they are not American citizens and I think we should pay attention to Justice Roberts’ (dissenting) opinion in this decision,” McCain said at a Boston press conference this morning, an hour after the ruling was made public. “But it is a decision that the Supreme Court has made. Now we need to move forward.”

McCain, who also supports the closure of the Guantanamo Bay detention facility, had been an advocate for the military tribunal system that the Supreme Court struck down.  Aides to the presumptive GOP nominee said he did not have time to read up on the ruling prior to his press conference but will have more to say on the topic.

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PHILADELPHIA, PA– Sen. McCain showed little compassion for his Democratic opponent in the City of Brotherly Love today, instead taking aim at Sen. Obama on a smorgasbord of issues from the economy to Iran.

After walking out to the “Rocky” movie theme music, he immediately jabbed Obama for the IL Senator’s April comments that small-town Keystone state voters “cling” to their second amendment gun rights and religion because they are “bitter.”

“We’re going to go to the small towns in Pennsylvania and I’m gonna to tell them I don’t agree with Senator Obama that they cling to their religion and the Constitution because they’re bitter,” McCain told more than 600 voters at Philadelphia’s National Constitution Center Wednesday afternoon. “I am going tell them they have faith and they have trust and support the Constitution of the United States because they have optimism and hope and are the strength of America. That’s what America is all about is the people who love our country, who cherish their religion and support the Second Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America.”

After getting hit repeatedly by the Obama campaign on Wednesday for suggesting on the Today Show this morning that “it’s not too important” when troops leave Iraq as long as they are safe and can exit when they want, McCain slammed his opponent for taking quotes out of context and repeated his call for joint town hall meetings.

“I asked him to join me tomorrow night in Federal Hall in New York City and let’s hear from the American people, let’s elect a few hundreds Americans who are unaffiliated, lets stand before them,” McCain said. “Instead of the sound bite, instead of taking someones comments out of context and flashing it around on the cable shows. Why don’t we hear complete answers and complete thoughts and that way, and that way the American people will really have an ability to judge.”

Sens. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) and John Thune (R-SD) also defended McCain’s comments during a conference call today.

“Frankly to suggest for a moment that after all that Senator McCain and his family have been through, that he doesn’t understand the sacrifice our troops are making is just absurd,” Thune said.

Lieberman added that McCain “has always been clear that he wants our troops to succeed in their mission (and) come home safely as quickly as possible.”

The presumptive GOP nominee also addressed his hatred of war and concern for his troops today, echoing language featured in his new ad, “Safe,” which the Republican has up in swing states including Pennsylvania. (below)

Other McCain big hits today:

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