Obama in N.C. - troubled or triumphant?

Following a critical speech Tuesday on race and politics, Sen. Barack Obama is in North Carolina today for speeches in Fayetteville and Charlotte. We'll be updating all day with news coverage and other items from the trail.

5:08 p.m. - The final reports: The Observer's Jim Morrill files this recap from Grady Cole (plus, watch charlotte.com tonight for his interview with Sen. Obama):

Speaking in Charlotte this afternoon, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama repeated his pledge to end the war in Iraq and urged parents to be more involved with their children.

Obama spoke to what he described as a "feisty" crowd of more than 2,000 at Grady Cole Center.

Obama amplified themes he'd struck in two major speeches, including one Wednesday morning in Fayetteville marking the fifth anniversary of the Iraq war.

"The war in Iraq was unwise," he said. "I was opposed to it in 2002. I'll bring it to a close in 2009."

Obama took a jab at his main rival, Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York, for criticizing his willingness to negotiate with countries such as Iran. Quoting President Kennedy, Obama said, "We should never negotiate out of fear, but we should never fear to negotiate."

Obama got a standing ovation when he answered a question on black-on-black crime by referring to his speech Tuesday on race and politics.

"We can embrace a knowledge of our history and our past to understand how we got here," he said. "But don't use that as an excuse."

Mark Johnson reports:

The high school girl who asked a question said her name was Hillary. "Uh oh," Obama joked.

Perhaps North Carolina still hasn't quite adjusted to the idea that the presidential primary here is actually going to draw candidates and the accompanying hoopla. Or, more likely, the rock star status has leveled off now that the campaign has spread over so many states. Either way, the Grady Cole crowd, while enthusiastic, didn't quite reach the level of some of the rock-the-house, movement-sized crowds Obama drew in early states like New Hampshire and South Carolina.

He left the hall, though, with the same sort of optimistic, cheer-rousing message that has marked his events around the country. He didn't reach this stage of the campaign, he said, by making impossible promises. But:

"I can promise you this. I will always tell you what I think. I will always tell you where I stand. I will be honest with you about the challenges we face. I will listen to you when we disagree ... and I’m going to make mistakes sometimes. ... I’ll admit when I make mistakes," he said, adding his final pledge: "I will wake up every single day thinking about you, thinking about how to make your lives a little better."

4:49 p.m. - Finishing up: Obama took eight questions. After the last, he tells the crowd: "I didn't just get here by making promises."

Then, perhaps in a nod to his speech Tuesday on race: "I can promise you this - I will always tell you what I think. I will always tell you where I stand. I will be honest with you about the challenges we face."

4:40 p.m. - "End the war in Iraq": Mark Johnson reports that eager questioners shout out every time Obama looks for someone in the crowd, even from the balcony. The candidate has fielded questions about lobbyists and emphasized that he'll impose a ban on lobbyists working in the White House - and White House aides who take lobbying jobs after leaving.

" We’re going to break the revolving door in my White House," Obama said.

Questioners ask about Darfur, the Americans with Disabilities Act, illegal immigrants and college tuition and the Middle East.

"End the war in Iraq. People have legitimate concerns, they say what if we pull out tomorrow, the country falls apart. Nobody’s talking about pulling out tomorrow, you have to do it in stages."

A man who identified himself as Chris Wilson asked about black-on-black crime but only after a note of praise for running for president in the first place: "I want to thank you for standing up and being a man, doing something that should have been done for a long time."

4:01 p.m. - "This is a rowdy crowd": Mark Johnson says Obama has been speaking for about 15 minutes, delivering his oft-used recounting of how when he launched his campaign, he was asked why, as a relatively young man, he wouldn't wait until he had more experience. "We can’t wait to fix our schools. We can’t wait to fix our health care system. We can’t wait to bring this war in Iraq to a close," he said

Says Mark: Obama doesn't speak in a sermon-like cadence, but he drew the sorts of responses that a minister gets.

"The economy is in shambles," he declares. "Shambles," echo a few in the crowd.

"People are working harder to get by," Obama says. "Yes" ripples through the crowd.

"(Vice president) Cheney met with the oil companies 40 times," he says. "40 times," comes the response.

Crowd members were so frequently calling out "we love you," that Obama finally paused: "This is a rowdy crowd," which then roared in approval.

3:45 p.m. - Assimilating: Mark Johnson reports - Obama may be in North Carolina for only a day but it'll be a true test of his devotion to North Carolina. We put the question to Dan Leistikow, Obama's North Carolina communications director: Will Obama eat barbecue or stop at a NASCAR memorabilia shop?

"Probably not today," Leistikow said. "But we have seven weeks" until the primary.

3:35 p.m. - Stepping on the story: Mark Johnson reports that the Clinton campaign, fully aware of when Obama's speech begins in Charlotte, dispatched a press release at 3:14 pm announcing that former President Clinton will visit Raleigh and Charlotte on Friday, March 21. Additional details will be announced, the campaign said.

At Grady Cole, the crowd is shouting "Obama, Obama" and "Yes, we can," Jim Morrill reports.

2:25 p.m. - Anticipation (updated 3:10): The Observer's Greg Lacour reports that the line at the Grady Cole Center for Obama's 3:30 p.m. event was "a good 100 yards long or more" more than an hour before the event, but everyone is in the building now. Greg says the crowd is truly "the big tent - every conceivable race, every conceivable age, every conceivable style of dress."

Without tickets are Brenda Edwinger, 63, and Paula Hoffmann, 57, who came to Grady Cole for a possible glimpse of Obama. Edwinger, who is white, said this day reminded her of another in 1960, when John Kennedy visited Charlotte. She remembered Kennedy riding down Elizabeth Avenue in a black Cadillac.

"I went with my grandmother, and it was the most wonderful thing," Edwinger said. "This is like deja vu."

1:40 p.m. - Barack Obama, available: A possible sign of an uncomfortable campaign? Barack Obama, whose availability to the press has been iffy at times, has granted CNN's Anderson Cooper behind-the-scenes access as he travels around N.C. today. Cooper will televise the results at 10 p.m. tonight live from Charlotte. Also, the Observer's Jim Morrill and Tonya Jameson will sit down with Obama after his Charlotte speech. Look for the interview tonight on charlotte.com.

12:25 p.m. - Obama lead shrinks in N.C. poll: Hillary Clinton has cut a four-point Barack Obama lead two weeks ago to one in the latest Public Policy Polling poll, just released.

The poll shows that Obama has stumbled in N.C. - as he has in other polls - since the controversy surrounding his former minister Rev. Jeremian Wright. The PPP poll, however, was taken Monday - the day before Obama's speech in Pennsylvania on race. Will that speech - and his N.C. appearances today - change minds again?

11:20 a.m. - "I will end this war": The Raleigh News & Observer reports from Fayetteville, where Barack Obama acknowledges the fifth anniversary of the Iraq War with a declaration:

Barack Obama said today in Fayetteville that the United States must end the war in Iraq to meet its real security challenges.

"I will offer a clean break from the failed policies and politics of the past," Obama said. "Nowhere is that break more badly needed than Iraq."

"I will set a new goal on Day 1" as commander in chief, he said. "I will end this war."

A transcript of the speech is here.

Obama said his policy would finally force the Iraqis to take responsibility for the security of their country, instead of relying on an open-ended involvement by U.S. troops.

He said the nation should have finished the fight against al-Qaida instead of attacking Iraq, and added that he would do that if elected president. He added that the war in Iraq had emboldened the United States' real enemies and threats, including Iran, North Korea and al-Qaida.

Standing on a stage adorned by eight U.S. flags, Obama said President Bush launched the war "based on false premises" and said there was no evidence, when the war began five years ago, that Iraq's regime was stockpiling weapons of mass destruction or was tied to the attack on the United States on Sept. 11, 2001.

The morning event was an invitation-only gathering with military families and veterans at Fayetteville Technical Community College. Some supporters and local elected officials also were among about 150 invitees at the Tony Rand Student Center.

10:45 a.m.: Welcome to a special one-day edition of the Primary Source (we missed you, too) as Barack Obama tips off the N.C. primary season with speeches across the state today.

We'll bring you coverage this morning from Fayetteville, where Obama is scheduled to speak on the Iraq war. This afternoon, he'll be at Charlotte's Grady Cole Center, and we'll be there with reporters inside and outside the venue. (Have a question you'd like us to ask Obama? Submit it to Politics editor Taylor Batten.)

Obama comes to North Carolina a day after his critical speech in Philadelphia on race and politics. The speech, on its surface, aimed to answer questions about Obama's relationship with his controversial Chicago minister, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, but it reached past that issue to offer a personal and candid exploration of race in America.

Politically, the speech also was about more than finding separation from Wright. It was an attempt to remind voters why they fell for Obama - that he brought a candidacy that spoke intelligently about big thoughts and difficult thoughts, about possibilities. Such a candidacy was bound to get mired in the inevitability of political muck - and the reality that big thoughts aren't enough. Yesterday was about reclaiming his campaign, about getting voters to judge him on his ideas, not others.

Our question of the day: Did he succeed? Tell us what you think of the speech with a comment.

Your Morning Buzz:

The reviews of the speech are in. The New York Times editorial page says he couldn't have done it better. The Washington Post called it an extraordinary moment of truth-telling. The Wall Street Journal says it hit too many discordant notes.

The NYT's Janny Scott says Obama confronted race head-on, then reached beyond it.

Maureen Dowd said Obama got off his pedestal - and that's a good thing.

The Washington Post's Eugene Robinson says the speech gives us a road map to follow on race.

His coworker, Michael Pearson, says Obama gave a fine speech - but why did he sit for his preacher's rantings?

In other news, Hillary Clinton's campaign is releasing 11,000 pages of schedules while she was first lady. Expect little in the way of scandal here, but expect the Obama campaign to continue asking for the documents it really wants, the Clintons' tax returns.

Clinton is visiting Michigan today to push for a re-vote of the Michigan primary, the Detroit Free Press reports. Michigan officials say they'd like Obama's approval for the new vote. Don't count on it.