'Our Moment Is Now,' Obama Declares

"Let's face it," said Dot Law of Hilton Head. "Voters are about numbers. Oprah can attract the numbers, and hopefully once you come and hear him you will then make up your own mind. . . . I don't think she will make you vote, but she can bring out a lot of people here that can hear his message that may not have wanted to come to hear otherwise."

"You've got to get people's attention," said Jim Margolis, media adviser to the Obama campaign. "This is a wake-up. It tells people to pay attention. . . . It's about generating excitement. She does that for us, but he's got to make the sale."

Winfrey and Obama ended their whirlwind weekend tour by traveling to New Hampshire, where 8,500 people braved a winter storm to see them Sunday night in Manchester.

In Columbia, a religious idiom and echoes of the civil rights movement flowed through the speeches of Winfrey, Obama and Obama's wife, Michelle. The candidate quoted from the Book of Psalms as he surveyed the crowd in the stadium and the weather overhead: "Look at the day the Lord has made," he marveled.

Winfrey said it was "amazing grace" that brought her to the campaign trail for Obama, and she talked of growing up in the South in the 1950s. She got female heads nodding throughout the stadium when she talked about the beauty salons that populate the Palmetto State and the humidity that ruins hairdos. "We love to keep our hair done down here," she said, brushing her hands through her own hair.

Winfrey drew responses of "no" and "nonsense" when she said there are those who say the youthful Obama, who is in his third year in the Senate, should wait for his turn before seeking the presidency. The cries turned to cheers and applause as she continued: "Think about where you'd be in your life if you waited when the people told you to. I wouldn't be where I am if I waited on the people who told me it couldn't be."

Toward the end of his speech, Obama evoked the struggles of the civil rights movement to encourage the audience to help him change history, noting that neither he nor Winfrey nor his wife would be where they are were it not for the courage of others.

"They stood up when it was risky. They stood when it was hard," he said, his voice rising along with the audience's cheers. "They stood up when it wasn't popular. They stood up and they went to jail. They sat down and then they stood up. They sat down when they weren't supposed to. The fire hoses came out. The dogs came out. But they kept on standing up. Because a few stood up, a few thousand stood up, and then a few million stood up. Standing up for courage and conviction, they changed the world. South Carolina, we can change the world."

Kendre Harvin-Green, who said it was Winfrey who prompted her to hire a babysitter and drive two hours to come to Sunday's rally, supports Obama, but she had nothing but praise for Clinton, as well. "She's, of course, an attractive choice because of Bill," she said. "You kind of feel comfortable about her because you feel like he knows what to do. At the same time, I just think Obama represents the change that we need."

Several African American women said they were weighing the choice of helping elect the nation's first African American president or the first female president. Patricia Parham said she is torn between Clinton and Obama. In the end, she said, race and sex will be secondary in her decision. "I'm looking at the best person . . . because, if they're not meeting the needs of the people, being male or female doesn't make a difference," she said.

Staff writer Alec MacGillis contributed to this report from New Hampshire.