Campaigns ramp up with 16 days to go
Obama gives a fiery speech in North Carolina addressing 'real America' on the day he gets Colin Powell's endorsement. McCain spends his day mostly defending Palin as 'a role model and reformer.'
FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. -- Barack Obama reached for the soaring rhetoric that thrust him onto the national stage four years ago in a fiery appearance here today, while John McCain spent a good part of his Sunday morning deflecting criticism of his running mate.
With 16 days to go before the presidential election, Obama received a rousing reception from an overflow crowd of more than 10,000 in this once dependably Republican state.
The Illinois senator touted his endorsement this morning from Gen. Colin Powell and laced into comments Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin made last week, extolling the values of "what I call the real America."
On Saturday, a McCain aide spoke on MSNBC about the Arizona senator's support in the "real Virginia."
Obama shouted his response over a roar from the crowd inside the city's sports arena. "There are not real or fake parts of this country," Obama said. "We're not separated by the pro-American and anti-America part of this country. We all love this country, no matter where we live or where we come from."
Speaking near the Ft. Bragg Army base, Obama said, "The men and women from Fayetteville and all across America who serve in our battlefields may be Democrats or Republicans or Independents, but they have fought together and bled together and some died together under the same proud flag. They have not served a Red America or a Blue America, they have served the United States of America."
The tone and language echoed the keynote address Obama delivered at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, which launched his meteoric national rise.
Obama won the coveted endorsement of Powell this morning. Powell hailed the Illinois senator as a "transformational figure" and expressed disappointment in the negative tone of the Republican campaign.
In other news, his campaign announced it had raised a staggering $150 million last month.
Earlier in his remarks in North Carolina, Obama mocked McCain and Palin for suggesting his policies amounted to socialism. "Socialism," Obama repeated after a chorus of boos died down, adding "it's kind of hard to figure how" investor Warren Buffett and Powell have both endorsed his candidacy.
Appearing in Ohio, meanwhile, McCain continued to speak glowingly about Palin, whom he elevated from relative obscurity when he picked her as his running mate. He called her "a role model and a reformer" who has "energized America."
