Obama just can't help but shine

[chiburb]

Nice article in today's Chicago Sun-Times about how Barack is playing in the "corn belt"...

Snip:

We really like this guy," the Urbana teen beamed afterward. "He's certainly creating a buzz and a feeling of hope that hasn't been around much lately, particularly for those who couldn't vote in 2000 and who for the past four years have not been terribly happy about the direction our country has been going. To see people stepping up and who seem straightforward is just refreshing."

This was one snapshot from the midpoint of Obama's ambitious five-day swing Downstate, where he was scheduled to hit 10 cities Tuesday in a hectic schedule that could only be met by his three-vehicle caravan roaring along the interstates at an 80-mph clip. His wife, Michelle, and their children trailed far behind since the speedometer of their rented motor home topped out at 50 mph.

"Barack is even better than John Kennedy," said retired schoolteacher Jane Spires, a Democrat from Decatur who watched Obama speak Monday in Clinton. "He just smacks of sincerity. I feel like he's a real person. I like the fact he isn't blaming everything on the Republicans. I like the fact he's a person who seems to be trying to bring America together, not be divisive. And I like how he talks in a normal tone of voice, not shouting and screaming."

Despite such heady talk, Obama appeared intent wherever he went to leave the clear impression that all of the attention has not inflated his head like a beach ball, defining himself as a "workhorse not a showhorse."

Speaking to an audience at Lake Land Community College in Mattoon, Obama provoked laughter when he said his barnstorming tour was designed to "make sure that people know I haven't gone Hollywood on them."

More here:
http://www.suntimes.com/output/elect/cst-nws-obama04.html