All Blog Posts from From The Road

From CBS News' Dean Reynolds:

(CHICAGO) - Say what you will about Barack Obama. That he is a gifted and inspiring speaker. A well-educated and thoughtful man. A man with lots of devoted friends and who inspired millions of complete strangers to participate in the American democratic system.

He is a dogged, highly competitive campaigner, disciplined to a fault, suspicious of the news media and relentless in his pursuit of the presidency. A man with a healthy ego that is smart enough not to show it. Obama is all of these things.

But I have learned something about him in a year of following in his footsteps across the country and back. It is a quality that every politician covets. Jimmy Carter had none of it. Ronald Reagan had it in abundance.

It’s luck. Obama is a very lucky politician.

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From CBS News' Dean Reynolds:

(DES MOINES, IOWA) - The Obama campaign plane, which smells much better these days by the way, is alive with Halloween decorations now.

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From CBS News' Dean Reynolds:

(NASHVILLE, TENN.) - After most of the previous 12 months covering Barack Obama's campaign for the presidency, it was interesting, instructive and, well, relaxing to follow John McCain for the last few days. The differences between the two are striking.

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From CBS News' Dean Reynolds:

(INDEPENDENCE, MO.) - Standing near the grave of Harry Truman as I watch John McCain pay tribute to the former president, I am reminded of one of the current myths about the man.

In recent years, Truman seems to have become the Republicans favorite Democratic president. They talk of his guts, his common sense, his straight-arrow politics and his ability to take on the awesome burdens of the presidency.

Democrats do the same. What sets the Republican praise apart, though, is their recollection of Harry as a man who always put "his country before party and self interest."

Undeniably true, but he was an energetic partisan.

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From CBS News' Dean Reynolds:

(LAS VEGAS) - The effects of this week's Wall Street meltdown on the election remain to be seen, but one thing is clear: the crisis has transformed Barack Obama as a candidate.

As lost, unfocused and defensive as he has seemed in the weeks since the Democratic National Convention, Obama is now a man with a mission, locked in on his adversaries whose verbal bungling this week rivaled his malaprops last week.

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From CBS News' Dean Reynolds:

(LEBANON, VA.) - Right off the bat, Barack Obama's words conflict with the message his campaign is sending.

"This has been a good story to write about," he told a news conference in Riverside, Ohio on Tuesday, "And there's always something new. And my general approach throughout this process is not to worry about today's news or yesterday's polls."

Well, Obama may not worry about such things, but his campaign clearly does.

Obama was talking about the Palin puzzle - why so much excitement has been generated around a Republican candidate who many Democrats find not only unqualified to be vice president but further to the right politically than John McCain himself. For days the campaign has been swinging back and forth on what to say about Alaska's governor, and how to say it.

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From CBS News National Correspondent Dean Reynolds

(DURYEA, PA.) - Barack Obama's campaign turned to the general election campaign wary, but still confident of victory in November.

Aides to the Illinois Democrat took in John McCain's speech to the Republican convention last night and said they were "underwhelmed" by it. Voters polled by Democrats had what was described as a "flat" reaction to it.

Specifically, they found a disconnection between McCain's appeal for an end to partisan sniping that came at the end of a week's worth of "unalloyed partisan carpet bombing."

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From CBS News' Dean Reynolds:

(NEW PHILADELPHIA, OHIO) - Barack Obama says this election is not about him. It’s about the electorate and the issues that voters face every day.

But the Republicans have clearly decided to make the election about him, his inexperience, his wife, his preacher, his fame. Whatever, the election is all about Obama. If anyone needed further confirmation, John McCain’s campaign manager, Rick Davis, has provided it. Speaking to the Washington Post editorial board, Davis said this:

"This election is not about issues... This election is about a composite view of what people take away from these candidates.”

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From CBS News' Dean Reynolds:

(CHESAPEAKE, VA.) - Barack Obama was handed a gift-wrapped package from John McCain on Thursday.

Just as the Illinois senator has begun focusing on economic concerns with greater intensity, McCain made a comment that opened wide a gulf between him and the electorate he is wooing.

McCain was asked a simple question during an interview with Politico.com. Nothing tricky about it. No curevball this: How many houses do you and Mrs. McCain have?

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From CBS News' Dean Reynolds:

(LYNCHBURG, VA.) - Back on the road with Barack Obama in Virginia, one senses an immediate shift to offense.

The new and feistier McCain camp seems to have landed several blows that knocked the Illinois senator off-message and off-stride.

Instead of hammering McCain as the heir to the Bush administration's legacy, Obama had been dwelling on the Republican insinuations that he is a shallow celebrity who gives big speeches to large witless crowds.

But this week, Obama is in a fighting mood, repeatedly charging that on issues which matter to Americans, McCain "just doesn't get it."

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