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It's Stand-Up Comedy Time for Obama as He Ratchets Up Criticism

(CBS)
From CBS News' Maria Gavrilovic:

(NORTH FARMINGTON, MICH.) - Barack Obama took it up a notch – or two - at a town hall meeting tonight where he used comedy to mock and ridicule the McCain-Palin ticket.

"I mean think about it, you guys remember this, it was just like a month ago they were all saying 'experience, experience, experience'," Obama said as the crowd snickered, "Then they chose Palin and started talking about 'change, change, change' - What happened?"

Not since the Democratic primary has Obama been this animated and wound up during a campaign event. His style of campaigning became a bit drab over the summer when he stayed mostly on message. But after Palin's convention speech received rave reviews, Obama has shown that he is not ready to relinquish the spotlight so easily. His performance tonight looked like a page from his days of campaigning against Hillary Clinton.

"I mean, mother, governor, moose shooter?! I mean I think that's cool, that's cool stuff," Obama said about Palin's biography.

When discussing McCain's energy plan, Obama poked fun at his line on drilling. "What were the Republicans hollerin', 'drill baby drill'? What kind of slogan is that?! They were getting all excited about drilling!"

He even found a way to make an answer to a question on civil liberties comical. While speaking about the importance of habeas corpus, Obama said, "We don't always catch the right person. We may think this is Mohammed the terrorist, it might be Mohammed the cab driver. You may think it's Barack the bomb thrower, but it might be Barack the guy running for president."

It remains to be seen if his jokes will translate into votes - but at least for tonight, he got a lot of laughs.

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