Barack Obama took the stage this evening in Grand Rapids, MI, in front of more than 12,000 supporters and said, “I know that we didn’t have the chance to campaign here during the primary – and I felt bad about it. I didn’t have a chance to talk to you guys about the issues. I felt guilty about not campaigning and so as a consequence I decided that I would try to give you something special,” he said to applause. “I decided that on my first full day of campaigning in Michigan, that I wouldn’t be fooling around, that I wasn’t just going to do the same old thing. But I decided that I was going to bring out one of the greatest leaders we have in the Democratic Party – please give it up for my friend John Edwards!”

John Edwards entered the arena to thunderous applause as Bruce Springsteen’s “The Rising” blared over speakers (a Kerry/Edwards ‘04 favorite). Before he praised Obama, Edwards was sure to mention the other Democrat still in the race - even as the Obama supporters booed at the sound of her name.

“I want to tell you, I know this is hard to understand sometime, but it is very, very hard to get up every day and do what she’s done. It is hard to go out there to fight and to speak up when the odds turn against you. And what she has shown is strength and character, and what drives her is something that every single one of us can and should appreciate,” he said, noting she is a woman “made of steel.”

“She’s a leader in this country not, not because of her husband, but because what she has done, because of speaking out, because of standing up. And we, when this nomination battle is over, and it will be over soon – brothers and sisters, we must come together as Democrats and in the fall stand up for what matters to the future of America, to make America what it needs to be. And we are a stronger party because hillary Clinton is a democrat. We are a stronger country because of her years of public service, and we’re gonna have a stronger nominee in the fall because of her work,” he said.

And then the news all the Obama fans were there to hear:

“The reason that I am here tonight is because the Democratic voters of america have made their choice and so have I,” he said as the arena erupted. “There is one man who knows and understands that this is a time for bold leadership. There is one man that knows how to create the change, the lasting change that you have to build from the ground up. There is one man who knows in his heart that it is time to create one America, not two, and that man is Barack Obama.”

Barack Obama had equally glowing things to say about his one-time rival and promised to join in Edwards’ fight to end poverty. “The fight that John is waging right now will be a fight I carry into the White House for the next four years,” he said. “I want to make sure that everybody knows that he will have a partner in that effort, because that is a goal that I will set as President of the United States of America.”

Soon after, a man in the crowd yelled out, “Does that mean Obama-Edwards?”

Obama laughed, Edwards smiled, but no one commented on the question. The message, rather, was unity. Obama said, “John Edwards and I believe in a different America. Hillary Clinton believes in a different America. The Democratic Party believes in a different America. One America, where we rise and fall together as one people and that’s why we are gonna take Washington by storm this November.”

Ending months of speculation, former Democratic rival John Edwards will endorse Barack Obama at a rally this evening in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Edwards joins Bill Richardson and Chris Dodd as the third former Democratic presidential candidate to endorse Obama.

Stay tuned.

It finally happened. Senator Obama managed to ditch his traveling press corps (thanks to some nasty weather in Wisconsin that led to the cancellation of his Sunday rally) to make the trip down to the Edwards’ home in Chapel Hill. The meeting, originally scheduled for February 11th, had been postponed when the national media found out and staked out the site.

Yesterday the campaign would only reveal that the meeting, one that Senator Clinton also had with John and Elizabeth Edwards, took place and that they discussed “the state of the campaign and the pressing issues facing American families.”

Here’s what Senator Obama said about the meeting and what an Edwards endorsement would mean to his candidacy at a media availability today in Ohio:

At a coffee shop in Silver Spring, Maryland, Senator Barack Obama weaved his way through pro-Obama coffee drinkers and a massive throng of reporters and cameras for a pre-election day photo-op. The senator shook hands, posed for photos, and bought a couple to-go coffees — and took questions here and there from the many journalists crammed into the cafe.

The question on the minds of national reporters today was about the once secret meeting scheduled between Obama and his former rival, John Edwards. Both Obama and Senator Hillary Clinton were invited to meet with Edwards, in theory, to discuss a possible endorsement. Clinton managed to fly down to North Carolina to meet with Edwards without the company of any press Monday night. Obama had originally been scheduled to fly to North Carolina following his Baltimore rally today for his turn.

Yesterday the Obama camp declined comment on the alleged meeting, pointing press to Edwards’ people. As word spread and the press found out the likely day and general time of the meeting, cameras and reporters set up and waited for the meeting near Edwards’ home. Suddenly, word came that the meeting was postponed.

So what do we know now? Obama staffers still won’t say anything on the record, but when asked at the coffee shop, Obama revealed, “It will be rescheduled. We’re gonna make it happen.” He then turned to greet more voters. On with the photo-op.

Senator John Edwards phoned Senator Barack Obama yesterday when Obama was in El Dorado, Kansas. According to Obama staffers, Edwards told Obama he was likely to drop out of the race, but had not yet made a decision. They two also talked about poverty, an issue for which Edwards has championed during his campaign for the presidency.

Staffers confirmed that Edwards phoned Obama again this morning prior to the candidate’s Denver rally to inform him that he was, in fact, dropping out. The two did not discuss an endorsement, but staffers say obviously Obama would like Edwards’ support going forward.

“I congratulated him on a great race and what a gracious way to end by going back to New Orleans,” Obama said to a reporter before talking to an overflow crowd at his Denver rally. When asked what impact Edwards’ departure would have on the race, Obama answered, “I don’t know.”

Here’s what Obama said about Edwards to a crowd of about 9,000 in Denver:

As we in the press corps wait for Senator Barack Obama’s 9 o’clock victory speech here at the Columbia Convention Center, the crowd is trickling in after going through security. Obama’s staffers are freely mingling in the press area - something they did in Iowa, but not in New Hampshire - or Nevada, when they all left the state before the caucus. A giant television screen suspended from the ceiling is blasting CNN - which just showed video of Senator Hillary Clinton leaving her South Carolina hotel. The crowd booed. The boos were just as loud when the monitor showed video of former President Bill Clinton speaking in Independence, Missouri. The crowd, of course, cheers every time the network delivers pro-Obama news. At one point the diverse crowd chanted, “Race doesn’t matter!”

Barack Obama began what would be a successful day in his candidacy at Columbia’s Bethelehem Baptist Church, followed by a quick stop at a polling precinct at the historically black Benedict College - sans press. A small press pool was allowed to accompany Obama to greet patrons of Harper’s Restaurant, where Obama exchanged pleasantries and posed for photos with nearly every table and some of the restaurant’s employees before leaving.

The Senator spent much of the day holed up in his Columbia hotel, where he did multiple interviews via satellite with South Carolina and February 5th state television stations. To unwind, Obama along with two staffers (including his body guy, Reggie Love, who used to play for Duke University and 6′8″ trip director, Marvin Nicholson) played a little basketball with some of Obama’s Secret Service detail. Obama’s team won the best of three contest, two games to one.

Shortly after the polls closed in South Carolina, Senior Advisor David Axelrod and Communications Director Robert Gibbs emerged from their hotel to walk the short block to the Columbia Convention Center. Gibbs told a gaggle of reporters that it appears the white vote was “far closer” than anyone had thought it would be - early exit polls show that Obama received a whopping 80% of the African American vote and 24% of the caucasian vote as compared to Hillary Clinton and John Edwards’ 38% each.

This is an election about delegates - not states, Gibbs said. The campaign sent out a statement that estimated Obama snatched 25 delegates here in South Carolina. Clinton picked up 12 and Edwards 8, per the Obama campaign. Their tally now has Obama leading the delegate count 63 to Clinton’s 48 and Edwards’ 26.

Gibbs waas sure that the race for the nomination would not be decided by February 5th. Expect a long battle that could extend into April. Gibbs was unsure if Hillary Clinton had called Barack Obama to congratulate him on his victory, but in a statement put out by the Clinton Camp, Clinton said she had called to “congratulate him and wish him well.” It continued, “We now turn our attention to the millions of Americans who will make their voices heard in Florida and the twenty-two states as well as American Samoa who will vote on February 5th.”

In an editorial board meeting with a Reno, Nevada, newspaper last week, Senator Barack Obama said what turned out to be ammunition for rival campaigns. “Ronald Reagan changed the trajectory of America in a way that Richard Nixon did not, and a way that Bill Clinton did not,” Obama told the newspaper. “I think it’s fair to say that the Republicans were the party of ideas for a pretty long chunk of time there over the last 10 to 15 years in the sense that they were challenging conventional wisdom.”

Both John Edwards and the Clinton campaign used these comments to make it clear that they, good Democrats, did not approve of Ronald Reagan’s policies. “I would never use Ronald Reagan as an example of change,” Edwards told the Associated Press. His campaign later put out a statement. “The breadth of change Ronald Reagan brought was crippling for millions of Americans, with the two worst recessions since the Depression, a complete disregard for the rights of American labor, and tax cuts that lined the pockets of the richest Americans at the expense of fiscal sanity and the well-being of the most vulnerable in our society,” said Edwards campaign manager David Bonior.

The Clinton campaign dispatched surrogates to respond. Corrine Brown (D-Fla.) wondered, “I would like to know what Republican ideas he thinks are great ideas.” Brown then listed Reagan-supported plans to privatize Social Security and abolish the National Education Association as well as provide tax breaks to the rich. President Clinton also weighed in, saying Obama “said that since 1992, the Republicans have had all the good ideas. So now it turns out you can choose between somebody who thinks thinks our ideas are better, or the Republicans had all the good ideas.”

Today Senator Obama responded to their criticisms at his Columbia, South Carolina rally, saying his statements have been mischaracterized - just another Washinton “trick.”

“I didn’t’ say I liked Ronald Reagan’s policies,” Obama explained. “What I said was that was the kind of working majority we need to form in order to move a progressive agenda forward. So when I see, you know, Senator Clinton or President Clinton distort my words, say somehow that I was saying Republican (sic) the only ones who had good ideas since 1980 – then that is not a way to move the debate forward. That is not a way to help the American people. And I am not running for president just to become president – I’m running to help the American people and move the debate forward. I’m not willing to say or do anything just to win an election, because when you start operating that way, you lose the trust of the American people and we need trust if we’re going to build the kind of country that all of us want for our children and our grandchildren.”

Obama told the crowd that Reagan “was able to tap into the discontent of the American people and he was able to get Democrats to vote Republican – they were called Reagan Democrats.” This skill of bridging party divides is one that Obama admits he hopes to emulate. “We as Democrats right now, should tap into the discontent of Republicans. I want some Obama Republicans!”

Seems like the Obama campaign has been thinking about this - or at least they came up with a snazzy name for these Obama Republicans: “Obamacans.”

At a town hall event just off the Vegas strip last night, Senator Barack Obama debuted a bit of humor and a hint of sarcasm to highlight his differences with his opponents. “When I was 20 points down, everybody loved me,” he started. “Now that we’re tied, suddenly there’s all kinds of stuff going on out here.”

Referencing the debate last Tuesday, Obama told the crowd he was “laughing” when the candidates were asked to talk about their biggest weaknesses. ” I thought, you know, ’cause I’m like an ordinary person, I thought that they meant ‘Whats your biggest weakness?’” he said sarcastically. ” Obama recounted his own ‘ordinary person’ response - that he’s not a paper person. “My desk is a mess; I need somebody to help me file and stuff all the time.”

He reminded the audience his opponents’ answers to the same question: that John Edwards is “just too passionate about helping people,” and Hillary Clinton is “just too impatient to bring about change in America.” He delivered the punch line with a comedian’s panache: “If I had gone last, I would have known what the game was, and then I could have said, ‘Well, you know I like to help old ladies across the street. Sometimes they don’t want to be helped. It’s terrible.’” The crowd howled with laughter. “Folks - they don’t tell you what they mean,” he said, hammering home his humor-wrapped point that his opponents are politicians who will say anything to get elected. “Undecideds - remember now, remember what I’m saying.”

After this anecdote, Obama had the crowd on his side when he segued into a more pointed criticism about Senator Clinton. Bringing up her answer in last Tuesday’s debate during which Clinton said she was happy the 2001 bankruptcy bill she voted for never passed, Obama said incredulously, “What does that mean? No, seriously, what does that mean?” The crowd laughed - Obama grinned. “If you didn’t want to see it passed, then you could have voted against it! People don’t say what they mean,” he repeated.

(more…)

Minutes after he told voters at a Reno, Nevada, rally that his opponents were trying to “run [him] down,” Senator Barack Obama held a media availability today to declare truce with his main competitors - Senators Clinton and Edwards. But mainly Senator Clinton.

“I wanted to take the time to talk to all of you a little bit because I’ve been a little concerned about the tenor the campaign has been going over the last couple of days,” Obama said to a roomful of reporters. “I thought it would be useful for me to just air this out a little bit,” he continued.

“I think over the last couple days you’ve seen a tone on the Democratic side in the campaign that I think is unfortunate,” he stated. “I may disagree with Senator Clinton or Senator Edwards on how to get there, but we share the same goals. We’re all Democrats.” He praised Edwards and Clinton as “patriots” who have the best interests of the country at heart, but urged all campaigns to “focus on the work that needs to get done” during this important time in our history. “I don’t want the campaign at this stage to degenerate into so much tit for tat back and forth that we lose sight of why we are all doing this,” he said.

This unscheduled announcement came just one day after Senator Clinton accused Senator Obama of trying to distort her comments on Martin Luther King, Jr., and challenged the consistency of his position on the war in Iraq. And, lest we forget, one day after BET founder and Clinton supporter, Bob Johnson, insinuated (and later denied) that while Clintons were deeply involved in “black issues”, Barack Obama was doing drugs. [His exact quote per FOX News' Aaron Bruns was, "I am frankly insulted that the Obama campaign would imply that we are so stupid that we would think Hillary and Bill Clinton, who have been deeply and emotionally involved in black issues when Barack Obama was doing something in the neighborhood that I won’t say what he was doing that he said it in his book."]

Senator Obama took questions from six reporters - Time’s Mark Halperin asked if Senator Obama would change his rhetoric about the Clintons and Nedra Pickler from the Associated Press questioned Obama on whether he thought the Clintons had been racially insensitive in light of recent comments Senator Clinton made about Martin Luther King, Jr., and those of her husband calling the Obama campaign a “fairy tale.”

Watch Obama’s opening statement and his response to those two questions here:

“It’s a good way to ring in the new year,” Obama communications director Robert Gibbs said last night in response to the new Des Moines register poll showing Senator Obama up four percentage points to 32% over Hillary Clinton’s 25%.

At his New Year’s Eve rally in Ames, Obama seemed pleased and announced that he was up “six or seven” points in the poll. “It’s beyond the margain of error - so we might just pull this thing off.” Of course the New Year’s Eve/Obama revelers cheered.

But caucuses are notoriously difficult to poll and even the Register cautioned relying on this one too heavily. The next morning in the sober six degree weather, Obama told a gym full of voters/canvass volunteers in Des Moines that polls are not enough. “The only thing that counts is whether or not you show up to caucus. The only thing that counts is whether over the next 72 hours, you’re willing to work for this and make the phone calls and knock on the doors and grab your friends and grab your neighbors and say it is time for us to deliver on change. That’s the only thing, that’s the only poll that we’re paying attention to is Thursday.”

He later told reporters on his plane that he hasn’t been paying “too much attention to polls at this point.” He added, “Now I think it’s going to come down to who gets their supporters out and I’ll put my money on my organization - it’s as good, and as dedicated and as intense as I’ve ever seen.”

Obama does regularly reference “recent polls” in his stump speech to prove to Iowans that he is more electable than Senators Clinton and Edwards. He tells voters that polls show that he can beat all five of the Republicans running for the nomination while other Democrats cannot. So clearly he’s paying attention to some polls.