Obama’s New Hampshire Trip Sparks Interest in 2008 Presidential Race

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• KWAME HOLMAN:

  At one of several stops Barack Obama made in New Hampshire yesterday, Governor John Lynch summed up the impact the Illinois senator was having during his first trip to this Mecca for all presidential hopefuls.

  GOV. JOHN LYNCH (D), New Hampshire: We originally scheduled the Rolling Stones for this party, but we canceled them when we realized that Senator Obama would sell more tickets.

• KWAME HOLMAN:

  Everywhere he went, Obama was mobbed, by curious residents who approached him on the street and by a horde of media, 25 television cameras, 150 members of the press.

  SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D), Illinois: Sorry, guys, I didn't mean to cause this fuss.

• KWAME HOLMAN:

  For many at this coffee shop in Portsmouth, it didn't seem to matter that their state's first-in-the-nation primary still is more than a year away or that Obama hasn't even announced he will run for president. Everyone wanted a piece of him.

  At a Sunday morning book-signing event, 900 people jammed a ballroom to hear the senator speak. Tickets ran out in 30 minutes last week.

• SEN. BARACK OBAMA:

  I think that there's a moment that we are living through in our history right now where we've got a series of very important decisions to make, and we have the opportunity to make them, not as Democrats, not as Republicans, but as Americans. And it's that promise that I'm most excited about.

• KWAME HOLMAN:

  Many waited more than an hour to shake his hand and get him to sign a copy of his book, "The Audacity of Hope." Awaiting her turn, Martha Rahn echoed what many local residents told us: Obama connects with them.

• MARTHA RAHN, New Hampshire Resident:

  Because he's one of us. He's America. He's not the rich and the wealthy and the special interests. He's one of us. I think he's awesome.

• KWAME HOLMAN:

  Another Portsmouth resident, Dennis McKinley, said Obama could help the nation regain some of the stature it's lost around the world in recent years.

• DENNIS MCKINLEY, New Hampshire Resident:

  I'm sick at heart with much of what's happening. But if I allow that to prevail, and I fail to recover hope, I mean, how can I proceed? And I think that's what he's saying. And he's trying to set the table emotionally — and perhaps, as he said, reach to recover and excavate the values, a sort of spiritual recovery.

• KWAME HOLMAN:

  Not so fast, said Fred Hurwitz of nearby Dover. Obama has served just two years in the U.S. Senate.

• FRED HURWITZ, New Hampshire Resident:

  He speaks well, and I think that's good to hear, for a change. But, you know, I'd like to see what a senator is actually able to get accomplished.

• KWAME HOLMAN:

  Still, even New Hampshire's most veteran political observers said there is something different about the reception Obama received. Jim Demurs ran statewide operations for Dick Gephardt and Al Gore. He traveled stop to stop with Obama on Sunday.

• JIM DEMURS, New Hampshire Resident:

  Everywhere we've stopped, people recognized him. He gets out of the car, he's mobbed by people. It has been something that I've never seen. I've been with a lot of presidential candidates a year before the New Hampshire primary, and most people don't even know who they are at this point.

• KWAME HOLMAN:

  In Manchester, Obama headlined an afternoon rally for the state Democratic Party, where 1,500 people, paying $25 apiece, packed the Radisson Hotel ballroom.

• ANNOUNCER:

  It is an honor and a privilege to introduce our guest of honor this evening, Senator Barack Obama.

• KWAME HOLMAN:

  During his 25-minute speech, delivered without notes, Obama addressed the extraordinary attention he's been getting.

• SEN. BARACK OBAMA:

  Obviously, it's flattering to get a lot of attention, although I must say it's baffling, particularly to my wife.

• KWAME HOLMAN:

  And he deflected the focus away from his possible presidential run.

• SEN. BARACK OBAMA:

  The reason that I'm getting so much attention right now has less to do with me and more to do with you. I think, to some degree, I've become a shorthand or a symbol or a stand-in, for now, of a spirit that the last election in New Hampshire represented. And it's a spirit that says, "We are looking for something different. We want something new."

• KWAME HOLMAN:

  Afterward, audience members again were impressed.

• NEW HAMPSHIRE RESIDENT:

  He talks about responsibility. That's important, his own responsibility, the responsibility of politicians, and the responsibility of the citizenry. We haven't heard that in decades, a generation.

• KWAME HOLMAN:

  But some thought Obama's race would be a limiting factor should he decide to run.

• NEW HAMPSHIRE RESIDENT:

  I think there's still too much racial hatred. I have hope, but it takes a long time to change a person's feelings.

• KWAME HOLMAN:

  Others disagreed.

• NEW HAMPSHIRE RESIDENT:

  There might be a few people in America for whom that would be an issue, but I just don't hear it.

• KWAME HOLMAN:

  Obama has said he is weighing all considerations and will make a decision on running after the first of the year.