Obama Questions Rivals on Iraq

His more subdued approach came as a surprise to some in the audiences along the way. "I think a lot of people realize there's been a lot of rock star-ness about him up to now," said Grant Sovern, an immigration lawyer from Madison, Wis., who came to see Obama speak in Cedar Rapids on Saturday. "I think you can see he's trying to bring things down and talk about issues more."

But, Sovern said, it was the rousing part of Obama's speech, toward the end that afternoon, that he expected would carry the candidate forward.

"I hope that the excitement he showed at the end -- that's what a lot of people are looking for," Sovern said.

That spirit came out in force when Obama returned to Chicago. He brought a crowd to its feet at the University of Illinois at Chicago with calls for higher salaries for teachers, help with college tuition, a movement to eradicate special interests' influence over government, and a universal health-care system.

He talked over Iraq war protesters who interrupted his speech with chants for immediate withdrawal of the troops. "We're on the same side," he chided. "Come on, guys."

"I'm proud of the fact that I was against the war from the start," he said minutes later, drawing a rousing response from the audience as he called the war a "tragic mistake."

Clinton has refused to characterize her vote authorizing the war as a mistake, an opening that Obama appears intent on using to his advantage. Howard Wolfson, a spokesman for Clinton, did not directly respond Sunday to Obama's comments about her plans on Iraq but described her as a "forceful critic" of the administration's execution of the war.

"She has supported a phased redeployment of our troops to start bringing them home and has strongly opposed President Bush's escalation of the war by proposing a cap on troops," Wolfson said.

When he was first available to the media, on Sunday, Obama faced a crush of reporters and cameras. He calmly answered questions about the war in Iraq ("We are not more safe as a consequence of it," he began); his hiring of opposition researchers (to answer potential attacks and draw distinctions on the candidates' records, he said); and whether he is still smoking ("No -- I've been chewing Nicorette all day long," he said).

Perhaps the most memorable moment came when he needled the press corps about an emerging story line on his candidacy.

"I know that one of the running threads, one of the narratives that has established itself among the mainstream media, is this notion, 'Well, you know, Obama has pretty good style, he can deliver a pretty good speech, but he seems to prioritize rhetoric over substance,' " Obama said. "Now factually, that's incorrect."

He said his two best-selling books, each of which has sold nearly a million copies, "probably give people more insight into how I think and how I feel about issues facing America than any candidate in the field and probably any candidate who's run for office in recent memory."

He continued: "The problem is not that the information's not out there. The problem is that that's not what you guys have been reporting on. You've been reporting on how I look in a swimsuit." He was referring to a People magazine photograph of him while vacationing in Hawaii several weeks ago.