The estimates for Obama’s Berlin speech ranged from the tens of thousands to 1,000,000. Today the candidate said he doubted he’d get a million and laughed at the idea of 500,000, but he did draw an impressive 200,000 - the biggest campaign event of his political career.

The enormous crowd, many waving American flags, stretched down the street leading from Victory Column in Tiergarten Park, all the way to the Brandenburg Gate that was once a point of entry between East and West Berlin.

The campaign was clear that this was not a political rally. As Obama described it, “The people in the crowd aren’t voters, so in that sense it’s not designed to get them to the polls…Hopefully it will be viewed as a substantive articulation of the relationship I’d like to see between the US and Europe.

..I’m hoping to communicate across the Atlantic about the relationship and how we can build on it.
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Previously, the candidate’s largest rally was in Portland, Oregon, where more than 70,000 showed up to hear the Illinois senator.

The RNC hosted a call today featuring Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty as Barack Obama is set to his big victory rally tonight in St. Paul on the site of the GOP ‘08 Convention.

Pawlenty told reporters he thought McCain would siphon away Clinton’s supporter who are “underwhelmed by Senator Obama” from the Democratic Party.  The GOP Gov also ripped into Obama  for a lack of knowledge of Iraq and urged the Democrat to visit the war zone with the presumptive Republican nominee.

The Obama campaign responded today with a statement: “These partisan attacks won’t change the fact that Senator McCain voted with President Bush 95 percent of the time last year. The McCain campaign has embraced George Bush’s policies, so it’s no surprise that they have also embraced George Bush’s divisive tactics. What’s clear is that the American people want change, which means responsibly ending the Iraq war, building an economy that rewards work and creates jobs, and passing a health care plan that guarantees insurance to every American who wants it and brings down premiums for every family who needs relief.”

Bring on the general election fight.

After enjoying some ice cream with his family on a beautiful Oregon day, Barack Obama took a few questions from his traveling press corps. The first question - why return to Iowa Tuesday?

“We thought it was a terrific way to kind of bring things full circle,” he said. “If Kentucky and Oregon go as we hope, then we think we will have a majority of pledged delegates at that point, and that’s a pretty signigicant mark,” he replied. Obama is expected to win Oregon, while Clinton will likely win by a healthy margin in Kentucky.

So will you hear a victory speech in Des Moines Tuesday night? Not exactly, according to the candidate. “I won’t be the nominee until we have enough, a combination of both pledged delegates and superdelegates to hit the mark.”

To become the Democratic nominee, a candidate needs to secure 2,026 delegates. Right now Obama is short of that mark by more than 100 delegates, but still leads Clinton.

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At the beginning of his rally in Corpus Christi, Texas, Senator Barack Obama recognized the Dallas police officer who died in the line of duty while providing escort service for Senator Hillary Clinton’s motorcade this morning.

Obama explained to the crowd that he, Clinton, and Senator John McCain all get help from local law enforcement to set up motorcades and ease traffic while campaigning. “One of the members of Senator Clinton’s detail got into an accident and passed away. He actually helped me when we were in Dallas,” Obama said, referring to a rally he held in Dallas just two days ago, where he relied on the Dallas Police Department for help getting to and from the airport.

“His name was Victor Lozada-Tirado. And so if everybody will just observe a brief moment of silence for him and his family, let ‘em know that our thoughts and prayers are with them,” he said. The thousands gathered in the Corpus Christi arena were still for about 10 seconds.

“It’s a reminder of the outstanding work that law enforcement does for us each and every day and so I hope that everybody can give a big round of applause for our law enforcement officers,” Obama said, before he began his stump speech.

Today Hillary Clinton was sure to tell voters there is a choice in this election. A few hours later at a rally in front of some 19,000 in Dallas, Barack Obama agreed.

“Today Senator Clinton told us that there is a choice in this race, and you know, I couldn’t agree with her more,” he said to the cheering crowd. Obama then pointed out the differences between himself and Clinton and explained why that would be important in a race against John McCain.

Check it out here:

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Barack Obama won all three contests that comprise the “Potomac Primary” today, as expected. Before the polls closed, the candidate left the ice and freezing rain of Northern Virginia and headed to the snowy midwest for a rally in Madison, Wisconsin.

“Today, the change we seek swept through Chesapeake and over the Potomac. We won the state of Maryland. We won the commonwealth of Virginia. And though we won in Washington, DC, this movement won’t stop until there’s change in Washington, DC, and tonight we’re on our way!” He told a crowd of some 18,000 on the campus of the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

But the candidate who has, does, and will continue to (according to senior advisor David Axelrod) consider himself the underdog in this race until the nominee is selected. And Obama made sure to tell Wisconsin voters this race is far from over.  “We know how much farther we have to go. We know it takes more than one night – or even one election – to overcome decades of money and the influence; the bitter partisanship and petty bickering that’s shut you out, let you down and told you to settle. We know our road will not be easy. But we also know that at this moment the cynics can no longer say that our hope is false. We have now won east and west, north and south, and across the heartland of this country we love. We have given young people a reason to believe, and we have brought the young at heart back to the polls who want to believe again.”

The frontrunner - according to the Obama campaign is still that hurdle known as Hillary Clinton and he’s still making the pitch to voters. “That’s the choice in this primary. It’s about whether we choose to play the game, or whether we choose to end it; it’s change that polls well, or change we can believe in; it’s the past versus the future. It’s about whether we’re looking backwards or whether we’re marching forward. And when I’m the Democratic nominee for President – that will be the choice we have in November,” he said, showing some degree of confidence.

The campaign is continuing to spread its message of hope, change, and unity here in Wisconsin this week, and then it’s on to Texas and Ohio, which the candidate talked about at the end of his speech tonight. “The voices of the American people have carried us a great distance on this improbable journey, but we have much further to go. Now we carry our message to farms and factories across this state, and to the cities and small towns of Ohio, to the open plains deep in the heart of Texas, and all the way to Democratic Convention in Denver; it’s the same message we had when we were up, the same message when were down; that out of many, we are one; that our destiny will not be written for us, but by us; and that we can cast off our doubts and fears and cynicism because our dreams will not be deferred; and our future will not be denied; and our time for change has come.”