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"    AURORA, Colo. \u2014 Against a backdrop painfully convenient for talk of suffering, President Obama opened his ever-tweaking, audience-melding stump speech here late Sunday night by telling 20,000 swing-state supporters that Hurricane Sandy was still on his mind. Whether he was politicizing disaster, it probably remained up to Mitt Romney to push back in his remarks once more; that Obama was responding to an invisible, stump-to-stump chess match this weekend was slightly more clear, and that tragedy had somehow helped his campaign was slightly clearer still. &amp;quot;For the past several days, all of us have been focused on not just elections, but we&amp;#039;ve been focused on what&amp;#039;s been happening on the East Coast,&amp;quot; Obama said at the Community College of Aurora, echoing a message he used across the country on Saturday and into Sunday. &amp;quot;One of the worst storms of our lifetime. As a nation, we mourn those who were lost.&amp;quot; He was addressing the crowd just a few miles away from the site of the Aurora Century 16 shooting, a clear reminder that Colorado this year has been no stranger to devastation and, for that reason, also no stranger to the president. Obama visited the key swing state (still a virtual tie, with nine electoral votes at stake) twice this summer for non-campaign events \u2014 first for the destructive wildfires across the state and then a second time for the midnight theater shooting.  It is in these times of tragedy that people unite, the president said as midnight loomed again here on Sunday night. But it&amp;#039;s also under these circumstances that the most compassionate President Obama seems to shine through \u2014 the &amp;quot;consoler-in-chief&amp;quot; that recently earned extensive praise from New Jersey&amp;#039;s Republican Governor Chris Christie, that offered him a heartbreaking but palpable political victory in the homestretch that he did not let escape voters at the eleventh hour. &amp;quot;Unfortunately, the people of this town understand what it means to grieve better than most,&amp;quot; the president continued. &amp;quot;Because the wounds of that terrible shooting are still fresh in people&amp;#039;s minds. And just as you&amp;#039;ve begun to heal as a community, we&amp;#039;re gonna help our friends on the East Coast heal as well. We&amp;#039;re gonna walk with the people who&amp;#039;s lives have been affected, those who lost loved ones. We&amp;#039;re gonna walk with them every step of the way on the hard road ahead, because that&amp;#039;s what we do as Americans. We help our neighbors and friends rebuild. We will carry on with a spirit that says no matter how bad a storm is, we come back. No matter how tough times are, we will thrive, because we&amp;#039;re all in this together.&amp;quot; Obama&amp;#039;s sensitive side came out in sharp contrast with the image Mitt Romney painted of his opponent a day earlier in his final Colorado rally. In that Saturday-night speech, the latest version of his own &amp;quot;closing argument,&amp;quot; Romney emphasized his goals of bipartisanship while criticizing Obama as a divisive, partisan president who has consistently failed to reach across the aisle and who has asked Americans to &amp;quot;vote for revenge.&amp;quot; One day later, Obama, too, straddled the line of bipartisanship and combativeness \u2014 pushing a message that&amp;#039;s positive and inclusive yet very much still on offense. Talk of the Aurora shooting and Hurricane Sandy on Sunday night seemed, ultimately, a stage-setter, a localized, compassionate preamble to standard lines of campaign attack that are unavoidable with hours until the polls open.  Even before the president arrived, Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper \u2014 who directly referenced Christie&amp;#039;s newfound admiration of the president \u2014 made a point to advertise Obama&amp;#039;s empathy.  &amp;quot;We&amp;#039;ve been through our fair share of hardship this summer, but like we always do, we stay together,&amp;quot; said the governor, who as a surrogate for the president has on numerous occasions praised him for his emotional depth. &amp;quot;Let me tell you, President Obama was with us every step of the way. He understands that we are at our best when we work together, not as Republicans, not as Democrats, but as Coloradans, as Americans.&amp;quot; Disaster, of course, is supposed to bring everyone together, although Sandy may have actually brought voters toward the president, almost by accident: Poll-watchers from Nate Silver to Chuck Todd continue to be surprised by the storm&amp;#039;s blow to Romney and bump for Obama. Supporters here said they appreciate a more compassionate, inclusive message that excites the base and can draw in apathetic or undecided voters.  &amp;quot;Just look at all the different types of people here,&amp;quot; said Jessica Hunter, 26. &amp;quot;Just look at the difference between an Obama audience and a Romney audience\u2026 [Obama] really cares and he sees the nation as everybody. Everybody is worth serving.&amp;quot; Still, going on the offense can be necessary, she added, especially when the opponent is telling lies. &amp;quot;Sometimes, he has to be negative,&amp;quot; she said. &amp;quot;Being negative is being a little more real. He is being truthful.&amp;quot; Cecilia Lawson, 33 \u2014 who wore a 2008 Obama sweatshirt that read TAKE A LEAP OF FAITH WITH ME \u2014 said she thinks the president&amp;#039;s response to Hurricane Sandy will help him in the final days of the race. &amp;quot;He cares. He is passionate,&amp;quot; she said, &amp;quot;and he&amp;#039;s not just doing photo-ops.&amp;quot; --Sam Levin is a writer for the Denver alternative weekly Westword. -- UPDATE, ON NEW JERSEY: Sandy&amp;#039;s Secondary Disaster Is the Institution of Voting SATURDAY ON THE TRAIL IN COLORADO: Romney&amp;#039;s Final Message Is Hope, Not Revenge SATURDAY ON THE TRAIL IN FLORIDA: For Obama, Clock&amp;#039;s Running in His Own Head EARLIER: Charles P. Pierce on Sandy as Obama&amp;#039;s Real Turning Point and Why It&amp;#039;s Good for Democrats to Politicize a Hurricane Stay tuned to The Politics Blog on RSS and Twitter for more coverage from Colorado, and from every single swing state.... "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/news/a16586/obama-sandy-stump-speech-14466308/>