Barack Obama cancelled a town hall meeting outside of Pennsylvania today to return to the U.S. Senate to vote. It is the first time the senator has come back to the nation’s capitol since February 12th, when he voted on cloture on FISA. Today the majority leader requested the presence of both Obama and Senator Clinton to be present for a series of budget votes, including a measure that would ban congressional earmarks for one year - something that Obama and the other two candidates have said they will support, although it’s expected the measure will not have the needed votes to pass.

On the votes, Obama said, “We now have another effort to extend the Bush tax cuts, another effort to eliminate and drastically reduce the estate tax. These are all steps that John McCain rightly said were irresponsible when they first came up. That certainly were unprecedented at a time of war. He made a decision to reverse himself on that. That was how I guess you got your ticket punched to be the Republican nominee. But he was right then and he is wrong now. The notion that we would pile up more mounds of debt, literally borrowing hundreds of billions of dollars to pay for tax breaks for people who don’t need them and weren’t even asking for them I think is unfortunate. And I think it’s an example of the kinds of flawed fiscal policies that have gotten us in such a hole under this administration and a Republican Congress.”

The last time he and Senator Hillary Clinton were in the capitol together for the State of the Union, when there was much ado about Obama snubbing Clinton on the floor of the House of Representatives.

What can we expect this time? In a press gaggle on his flight from Chicago to Dulles Airport this morning, Obama laughed. “You know, I’m sure we will both be effusive and make sure that we shake hands.” When asked if there was anything they might discuss, Obama didn’t exactly answer, but offered, “I’m sure that both she and I are probably glad that we can step back from the one primary a week pace and actually think a little bit, which is something that has been hard to do. It’s been so phrenetic. Now’s a good time to be able to step back and you know, think about where we’ve been and I would say make mid-course adjustments, but it’s not mid-course,” he said with another laugh.

As he walked away from the ballot box at a Chicago elementary school this afternoon, Barack Obama joked to reporters, “It was close, but in the end I went for Obama.” The senator and his wife Michelle stayed at the polling place in the Hyde Park neighborhood for nearly a half an hour after voting, where they greeted students and teachers, poll workers, and other voters as a gaggle or reporters looked on, trying to get his attention.

When he ambled over to the waiting journalists who had set up microphones, he stressed he had time to take just two questions. The senator had a slew of satellite television and radio interviews to do this afternoon - and he squeezed in a game of basketball at Chicago’s East Bank Club. The candidate has something of a tradition of playing games on  caucus and primary days with staff and Secret Service.

Obama was asked to anticipate today’s outcome, as Super Tuesday is traditionally the day that decides a party’s nominee for president. But probably not this year. “I think everybody is flying blind on this one,” he responded.

When the primaries were “one state at a time we could actually track and get a sense of how the election and turnout was going. Here we’ve got 22 states and noody can keep track of it. What we know, though, is that the last couple weeks we’ve seen tremendous excitement,” he explained.
He then added, “My guess is we’ll have a good night.”

Watch Obama vote here:

Later at a “pen and pad” briefing in the press file adjacent to the site of Obama’s rally tonight, Campaign Manager David Plouffe said as long as it’s close in terms of pledged delegate support, it will be a successful night for Team Obama. They don’t expect to win more states or delegates than Senator Clinton, but look for it to be closer than thought just weeks ago. If they can get by without a severe loss, the Obama campaign would regain a sense of confidence because “we get to states in smaller bite sizes, two or three on a day, where we think we can actually get in there and campaign and have the focus be a little bit more intensive,” Plouffe explained.

But stay tuned. Plouffe stated that anything is possible on Super Tuesday. “Who knows what could happen tonight, there could be some surprises on their side too,” he said.

At a press availability in Los Angeles this morning, Senator Obama called the debate last night a “good” one and then highlighted the differences between Hillary Clinton and himself on the issues of Iraq, health care, and special interests.

He also stressed that he has done more than any other to engage people “who otherwise would not participate” in the political process, which is why he believes he would be more successful in a general election than Clinton. “I’m confident I will get her votes if I’m the nominee. It’s not clear that she would get the votes I got if she were the nominee,” he said, referring to the constituents who would be more inclined to vote for Obama, but not Clinton.

He’s also confident that, in an Obama-McCain match-up, he would take the Independent vote. Watch his explanation here:

Obama then flew to New Mexico, where he delivered a speech on the economy - and took a swipe at the Republican frontrunner for his position on tax cuts. “There was a time when Senator McCain courageously defied the fiscal madness of massive tax cuts for the wealthy in the midst of a costly war.  But that was before he started running for the Republican nomination and fell in line.  Now he wants to make permanent the tax cuts he once denounced. Well I haven’t changed my mind.  They have been an economic disaster for America, and I will end them when I am President,” Obama said.

Senator Barack Obama today spoke on the campus of Clemson University in South Carolina. About 3,000 or so, mostly students, stood outdoors in the cold to hear the candidate for president. “I know that a lot of young people have grown up cynical and skeptical about the political process, and don’t believe that change is possible,” Obama said at the top of his speech. “And what I hope to do,” he said, “is to persuade you that anything is possible if you’re ready for change.”

The senator didn’t speak long, but attempted to empower the young voters by letting them know that their vote counts. All they have to do is take a look at Iowa.  Obama explained that although the youth turnout in Iowa was unexpected by political pundits, students came through in unprecedented numbers - something he surely hopes will happen in South Carolina and elsewhere.

Take a listen to the senator’s close to the student voters: