Email this postLarry Eichel reports from Pittsburgh...
12:25 p.m.
This is the long version of the speech, and the crowd is lapping it up. This is as enthusiastic an Obama crowd as I've seen in a while, one standing ovation after another. He just keeps going, offering them what amounts to Obama's greatest hits. "I'm not running to become more like Washington. I'm running to challenge Washington." He says he's getting ready to close, and the ground mutters its objection.
11:56 a.m.
In his speech, Obama told the crowd that the campaign has taken him to 46 states. "Two left," he said. Perhaps he forgot Alaska and Hawaii. Or maybe it was two other states. After all, he carried both Alaska and Hawaii.
Accepting Casey's endorsement, Obama said he hadn't pressed for it. Obama said he knew that he was runninng behind in Pennsylvania and that it made sense for Casey not to do anything before the Pennsylvania primary. So he was pleased, he said, when Casey called him with the news. Obama said the endorsement "meant as much to me as any endorsement I've received in this campaign because I knew it was coming from the heart. I knew it wasn't based on any political calculation."
It's official. As reported in today's Inquirer by my colleague Tom Fitzgerald, Bob Casey has endorsed Barack Obama at a rally in the Soldiers and Sailors Memorial. "I believe in my heart that there's one person who's uniquely qualified to lead us in that new direction. And that's Barack Obama."
Casey says he called Hillary Clinton last night to tell her of his decision. He describes her as having been "very gracious." He says that one reason he's endorsing Obama is because of how taken his four daughters are with the senator from Illinois.
He talks about the priorities that need to be addressed, including ending the war in Iraq."We need a president who's committed to change...and he's right here beside me," Casey says. "He has appealed, as Abraham Lincoln did many years ago, to the better angels of our nature."
The Decision: November 4th blog brings you up-to-the-minute coverage of the Presidential campaign.
It's written by political journalists from the Philadelphia Inquirer. Send us your comments -- and news tips -- at this address.
Larry Eichel is the senior writer for The Philadelphia Inquirer, covering the 2008 presidential election. He has served as national political writer, a foreign and national correspondent, a political columnist, sportswriter, national editor and suburban editor. He is the co-author of two books and three children.
Thomas Fitzgerald joined The Philadelphia Inquirer in 2000, and has covered Harrisburg as well as city, state and national politics for the newspaper. He was a “boy on the bus” in the 2004 presidential campaign and during primary contests in 2000 and 1996.
Nathan Gorenstein has covered politics and government in the city, state and nation for the Inquirer. He's worked in the city hall bureau, had a stint on the business desk, and once covered the suburbs. After serving as assistant regional editor, he was named editor of the "Politics" web site.
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