ROANOKE, VA. – Sen. Barack Obama told an enthusiastic crowd here that they must turn excitement into votes, adding he was too superstitious to say “when I’m president,” even as top advisers held a large meeting to plan a transition to an Obama White House.
The Democratic nominee, holding a solid lead in state and national polls, has told aides and voters alike not to get cocky in the final days of the race, but a transition team has formed separately from the campaign.
“We are 18 days away from changing this country,” Mr. Obama said during a rally here. “For those of you who are getting a little cocky … I just got two words for you: New Hampshire. Everybody thought we were going to win that primary … we lost.”
He said the same was true in Texas and Ohio, where polls showed him ahead and then “we ended up losing,” and one woman shouted, “Not Virginia!”
Virginia delivered Mr. Obama one of his largest primary wins over Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, and is critical to the Obama strategy for Nov. 4. An Obama victory here would make it very difficult for Republican nominee Sen. John McCain to get the 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidency.
That seems to be what his team is preparing for.
The Associated Press reported from unnamed top campaign sources that under the direction of John Podesta, a White House chief of staff under President Clinton, the transition effort includes a dozen separate groups divided into different areas of responsibility.
The AP also reported that Cassandra Butts, a longtime associate of Mr. Obama’s, is in charge of the group dedicated to personnel for a new administration.
While the McCain campaign also has a transition team, led by former Navy Secretary John Lehman, it is not known to have met or have set up an elaborate structure.
President Bush on Thursday established via executive order his own official transition team to help the new president with a “seamless” transition before the Jan. 20 Inauguration.
“This is especially important as our nation is fighting a war, dealing with a financial crisis and working to protect ourselves from future terrorist attacks,” said White House press secretary Dana Perino.
The White House team will be led by Chief of Staff Joshua B. Bolten and include White House officials who deal with national security, counterterrorism and economic policy.
“It shall be the policy of the council to provide appropriate information and assistance to the major party candidates on an equal basis and without regard for party affiliation,” the order said.
Mr. Clinton established a similar transition team before the Bush administration took office.
In public, Mr. Obama was telling voters in Roanoke they can take nothing for granted and shushing someone who said he should use the phrase “when I’m president” and not his preferred “if I’m president.” Mr. Obama often claims that he is superstitious and doesn’t want to use the word “when.”
“You can’t pay attention to the polls,” he said. “We’ve got to keep fighting for every vote.”
An Obama organizer getting the rally started demanded the 8,000 attendees take out their cellular phones and “send a text message to Barack right now.”
That’s a campaign strategy for collecting voter data - and it allows Team Obama to send text messages to supporters on Nov. 4 to make sure they have gone to the polls.
Mr. Obama holds a solid poll lead in Virginia, which has not voted for a Democrat for president since 1964. There also are encouraging signs for Team Obama in North Carolina, which also had been in the solid Republican column for years.
Republican nominee Mr. McCain appears in both states Saturday; Mr. Obama will be in North Carolina on Sunday before heading to Florida.
North Carolina’s State Board of Elections reported that more than 100,000 people participated in the state’s early voting program on its first day, and that 64 percent of those voters said they were Democrats.
In Florida himself Friday, Mr. McCain told voters that if Mr. Obama were to win, his advice would be: “Hold onto your wallet.”
Mr. McCain suggested voters could not trust Mr. Obama would actually give tax cuts, returning once more to the story of Joe the Plumber, a regular part of his speeches since the Arizona senator first mentioned the tax concerns of Ohio plumber Joe Wurzelbacher in Wednesday’s presidential debate.
Mr. Obama had told the man while touring his neighborhood last weekend that, “I think when you spread the wealth around, it’s good for everybody,” a comment that has ignited Republicans.
“When politicians talk about taking your money and spreading it around, you’d better hold onto your wallet,” Mr. McCain said in Miami. “Senator Obama claims that he want to give a tax break to the middle class, but not only did he vote for higher taxes for the middle class in the Senate, his plan gives away your tax dollars to those who don’t pay taxes. That’s not a tax cut; that’s welfare.”
Obama rally attendees arriving at the Roanoke coliseum were greeted by five College Republicans wearing overalls and shirts reading “Joe the Plumber.” One man held a sign reading, “It doesn’t take a plumber to know Obama’s taxes stink.”
They held plastic toilet plungers that one man said they bought for $6 at Wal-Mart, adding that it’s “lucky the taxes are still low, we can afford ’em.”
Democratic Sen. Jim Webb told the Roanoke crowd the race “has gotten ugly” and noted his 2006 victory over Republican Sen. George Allen: “I know what it’s like to be involved in a Karl Rove campaign and it’s not fun, folks. What they do is they say ’that person is not like you, that person doesn’t understand you.’ ”
The state’s junior senator told the crowd Mr. Obama is like them and does understand them, and even noted that while his father was Kenyan, “Barack Obama’s mother was born in Kansas by way of Kentucky,” meaning if he’s elected he would be the 14th president “whose ancestry and whose family line goes back to the mountains of this area.”
“I trust Barack Obama, and you should trust Barack Obama,” he said.
Rep. Rick Boucher warmed up for Mr. Webb, noting Mr. Obama has been in the state seven times since he won the Democratic nomination. Mr. Obama’s first visit after getting the nod was to Mr. Boucher’s district, the only one in the state that backed Mrs. Clinton over Mr. Obama in the primary.
Mr. Webb asked the crowd, “When’s the last time you saw John McCain in this part of Virginia?” a question that drew loud boos. Mr. Webb also said the race was not about “whether John McCain is a good person or not, but whether John McCain is the right person to lead the country, and he’s not.”
He mocked Mr. McCain’s running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, asking: “Do you really think Sarah Palin is the most qualified person?”
Mr. Obama has been gathering newspaper endorsements, but scooped up an unlikely one Friday from his hometown Chicago Tribune, which was founded in 1847 and never endorsed a Democrat.
The Los Angeles Times also penned an Obama endorsement, its first ever backing of a Democrat.
• This article is based in part on wire-service reports.
•Explore different election-night scenarios with our ’Road to 270’ interactive electoral college map.
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