"Everybody here knows somebody who's stubborn and wrong all the time. Why would you elect somebody like that president?" Obama called out. "I mean, it's one thing that somebody's wrong and they know they're wrong. Or it's one thing if they're arrogant but they're right all the time. But when they're arrogant and wrong all the time, that's a problem."
Connecting his argument to what he described as common American values, Obama criticized Attorney General John D. Ashcroft for "rounding up" terrorism suspects and denying them access to lawyers. He quoted Martin Luther King Jr. as saying the arc of the moral universe is long and bends toward justice.
"We don't just inherit the world from our parents, we borrow it from our children," Obama said. "So we have an obligation to give them clean air and clean water and a Constitution that's not poked full of holes. And a foreign policy that creates respect for Americans in the world, so that we don't have to feel when we carry an American passport that that automatically makes us a target."
Obama reminded his audience that Wisconsin, which Al Gore won by just 5,708 votes in 2000, is where the controversial ads challenging Kerry's record as a Swift boat commander in Vietnam began. He said the time to start getting out the vote is now: "We've got to mobilize Wisconsin."
The faithful lined up by the dozen to volunteer.
"He's a godsend," said union organizer Robert Greely, 45, who put off lawn mowing to see Obama. "He's a different politician, in that he understands the total picture. All races, all incomes. He's uplifting."
This is heady stuff for Obama, who gives every impression of keeping his feet on the ground. He acknowledged having a healthy ego but said he is hardest on himself when he feels he has screwed up. Barbs from opponents and critics bother him less.
All but assured of victory, he is bracing for the attention and celebrity of being the Senate's only black member. Among those he intends to consult is Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), he said, because she knows how to balance "some of the pressures of celebrity with good work."
Wherever Obama goes, he is treated as if he were a high-tech company on the eve of an initial public offering. The cheering crowds are like investors, certain they are adding a winner to their portfolio. Asked in Milwaukee, as he so frequently is, about talk of becoming the country's first black president, Obama did not deny his interest.
What he said instead was, "That kind of hype is premature."
