by John McCormick
PHOENIX – This is increasingly feeling like a rock concert tour.
From arena to arena, Sen. Barack Obama traveled Wednesday, with a warm-up act at each stop.
At an early evening stop here, Obama’s campaign said some 13,000 people were drawn to Veterans Memorial Coliseum to see Obama, Caroline Kennedy and Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano.
“I don’t know if you are aware, but the Super Bowl is not until Sunday,” Obama said in the city that hosts the big game this weekend.
Earlier in the day, his campaign said his road show attracted about 18,000 people in Denver.
Both Arizona and Colorado are on the list of 22 states that will hold primaries and caucuses on Feb. 5, a coast-to-coast collection that Obama and Sen. Hillary Clinton are selectively passing through based on each campaign’s strategic calculus.
After months of toiling mostly in just four states in often more intimate settings, the Democratic nomination battle is now mostly a tarmac-to-tarmac affair, with an occasional “town hall” event, such as the one Obama will hold Thursday morning in Los Angeles before an evening debate that will feature he and Clinton on the stage, alone, for the first time.
