On a campaign swing that included visits to military bases, which he has largely steered clear of, the Democratic presidential candidate emphasized his own love of country.

"That's the bet our Founding Fathers were making all of those years - that our individual destinies could be tied together in the common destiny of democracy, that government depends not just on the consent of the governed but on the service of citizens," he told a small audience at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs.

Throughout the week, Obama has been striving to win over voters in Republican areas, defending his patriotism in Independence, Mo., on Monday; pledging to expand federal assistance to religious social-service groups in rural Ohio on Tuesday; and preaching service in central Colorado yesterday.

He is to speak about veterans in Fargo, N.D., today, then will highlight the theme of family tomorrow as he celebrates Independence Day in Butte, Mont., with his wife and two daughters.

He emphasized what he called "the enormity of the American accomplishment," touring Peterson Air Force Base here and visiting the ultra-secretive North American Aerospace Defense Command, U.S. Northern Command headquarters, and the Air Force Academy.

Military visits have been a rarity for Obama. Since entering the Senate in 2005, he has visited only the National War College and Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington, along with two bases in Illinois, his home state.

But such installations are critical in the West, especially along Colorado's Front Range. Colorado gave President Bush 52 percent of its vote in 2004, compared with 47 percent for Democratic Sen. John Kerry, but the vote in El Paso County, the home of Colorado Springs, was a far more lopsided 67 percent to 32 percent.

Sen. Ken Salazar (D., Colo.), who won his seat in 2004, said Obama was "exactly right" to campaign here and attempt to at least trim the margin of his expected defeat in the county.

At $3.5 billion a year, Obama's service plan, first laid out in December, has been derided by conservatives as an example of big government.

He would expand by 250,000 slots the AmeriCorps program set up by President Bill Clinton; double the Peace Corps by 2011; expand the Foreign Service; and create an Energy Corps to conduct renewable-energy and environmental-cleanup projects.

A component he added yesterday would allow veterans to use expanded education benefits under the new GI Bill to seek training for jobs in renewable energy.

Obama stressed his own experience working after college as a community organizer for $12,000 a year.

"Through service, I found a community that embraced me, citizenship that was meaningful, the direction I'd been seeking," he counseled.

Republicans here, in a conference call, raised his past support for gun control and his private fund-raiser scheduled for last night. They said it was closed to avoid questions about retired Army Gen. Wesley Clark, who said Republican John McCain's experience as a prisoner of war was not a qualification for the presidency.