Obama Avoids Partisan Rhetoric, Focuses on Unity

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Obama, Biden Hit the Trail

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama and running mate Joe Biden campaign in crucial swing states. With just over a week before the election, Florida, Virginia and Colorado are still up for grabs.

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"We're not going to let John McCain forget his record of the last 26 years," Obama says, referring to McCain's service in Congress. "It's time for change, but it's time for change you can believe, not somebody who's starting to try to break with his president over the last 10 days after supporting him for the last eight years."

The politicians Obama mentions in his speeches are from farther back. Under his tax proposals, he says, "tax rates will actually be less than they were under Ronald Reagan," adding that rolling back the tax cuts enacted under Bush would simply make the wealthiest Americans "go back to the rate they paid under Bill Clinton."

Enjoying the luxury that comes with being ahead in the polls and not yet forced to defend the states that Democrat John F. Kerry won in 2004, Obama's message "is one that is an appeal to independents," said his communications director, Robert Gibbs.

Obama can accuse McCain of being on the attack while he himself proposes uncontroversial sacrifices -- "turn off the lights when you leave the room" and calls for personal responsibility, which always draw a cheer from the crowds.

"I can put more money into education," Obama says, "but I can't make you turn off the TV or put away the video games. Parents have to parent. Fathers have to father."

And Obama plays off comments from his opponents to paint them as divisive, when the country wants a unifier.

"We are not separated by the pro-America and anti-America parts of this country -- we all love this country, no matter who we are, no matter where we live, where we come from," Obama says.

"The men and women from" -- here, Obama adds the name of whatever state he is in -- "and all across this country who serve on our battlefields -- some may be Democrats, some may be Republicans, some may be independents.

"But they fought together, they 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."

Sometimes the crowd responds with a chant not often heard at Democratic rallies: "U-S-A."