Obama rewrites poll script

Columbia City, Indiana: There was no music, no sea of screaming admirers and only a light dabble of applause when Senator Barack Obama walked across the green carpet of the Oak Pointe retirement centre here on Thursday at his first campaign stop of the day.

For a presidential candidate, particularly one in the throes of a rigorous political and personal test, such a dearth of energy could be a worrisome sign. For Obama, it was all part of the new script.

"What I want to do is spend more time listening than talking," Obama told a small clutch of Indiana voters. "It's been wonderful to see these big crowds, but the problem is you don't really learn much when you're listening to yourself talk."

As he tries to navigate beyond one of his roughest patches in the long Democratic nominating fight, Obama did not retreat to the comforts of super-size rallies that have defined his presidential bid, with their lofty oratory.

Those events, advisers say, do not convert enough sceptics, which Obama must do if he is to expand his support in Indiana and beyond, particularly after the controversy stirred by the incendiary remarks of his former pastor, the Reverend Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. So, five days before facing Sen Hillary Clinton in the next round of Democratic primaries, Obama awoke on Thursday intent on tackling a broader challenge waiting in the wings: assuring Indiana voters that he believes in their same values and shares their patriotism.

Early days

As he travelled by bus across northern Indiana, from Columbia City to South Bend and North Liberty to Union Mills, Obama's appearances resembled the early days of a campaign for the White House, unfolding throughout the day as a rolling introductory tour without the presidential glamour.

The city librarian delivered a glowing introduction of Obama at the assisted living center here. Later, a farmer offered an endorsement before the senator met voters at the Dairy Beef Building at the county fairgrounds. By evening, he loosened his tie and sat down at a picnic table as he made small talk with a family on a farm. For days, the controversy surrounding Wright had threatened to overtake Obama's message in the critical closing days of the Indiana and North Carolina primary campaigns. Frustrated by the attention the story had received from the news media and pained by being forced to denounce Wright publicly, Obama appeared tired, worn and rambling during a late-night appearance on Wednesday in Bloomington.

But if presidential campaigns are built upon stagecraft and images, this is the picture his strategists wanted to project on Thursday: He was talking, listening - and, they hope, connecting - with older, white residents of Indiana, the kind of voters he struggled to win over in Pennsylvania. At the Oak Pointe centre, he was intent on shaking hands with each of the 52 residents seated in easy chairs and wheelchairs and on sofas. A few hours later, he rolled up his sleeves and drank a can of Budweiser as he talked with a group of men at a Veterans of Foreign Wars club.

"You want to know my values?" Obama asked a group of voters on a recent evening. "Let me tell you about my family."