(EMMANUEL DUNAND/AFP/Getty Images)
CHICAGO — Barack Obama picked up two important votes this morning in his bid for president: his and his wife’s.
Obama, his wife, Michelle, and their two daughters arrived at a local elementary school on Chicago’s South Side just after 7:30 this morning. Michelle Obama took longer than her husband to finish voting — she did not look up from the ballot at all, while Obama grinned occassionally at his daughters.
When Obama cast his ballot, he told a few dozen onlookers snapping photos, “I voted.” The crowd let out a big cheer.
“He’s sort of a hometown favorite,” said Addison Braendel, a 44-year-old attorney who lives four houses down from Obama in Hyde Park.
The Obamas voted just minutes after Bill Ayers, their notorious neighbor and former radical who has caused the Illinois senator so much grief during the campaign. Ayers ignored a question from a reporter about whom he voted for.
On the tarmac before Obama took off for Indiana, he told reporters, “I feel great and it was fun, I had a chance to vote with my daughters. I feel really good.”
Is he feeling sentimental?
“You know I’m sure I will tonight – that’s when polls close,” he said. “The journey ends but voting with my daughters, that was a big deal. I noticed that Michelle took a long time though. I had to check to see who she was voting for.”
Later in the morning, Obama stopped by the UAW Local 550 union hall in Indianapolis. The room was decked out with Obama posters and calling stations, and about a dozen volunteers were making last-minute pleas from their cellphones. Obama talked to at least 10 voters himself. When a reporter asked whether he thought he could win Indiana, he said, “I think we can win Indiana, otherwise I wouldn’t be in Indiana.”
Obama’s campaign manager, David Plouffe, said this morning he was confident that new voters and young voters would fuel an enormous turnout to boost Obama. “We just want to make sure people turn out,” Plouffe told NBC’s “Today.””We think we have enough votes around the country.”