On Center Stage, a Candidate Letting His Confidence Show

Reporter’s Notebook

Rick Bowmer/Associated Press

Senator Barack Obama, Democrat of Illinois, leaves the stage after a news conference on Saturday in Columbus, Ohio.

By MICHAEL POWELL

Published: February 24, 2008

AUSTIN, Tex. — Barack Obama has a Barcalounger manner about him these days, padding about those campaign stages like a man commanding his den.

Mr. Obama is on an electoral roll, polls show him pulling closer in Ohio and Texas, crowds show him the Big Celebrity Love, what’s not to like? A touch of cockiness is discernable in his manner now; he is like a gambler convinced his every dice roll will come up double sixes.

His rally in Austin, Tex., on Friday evening fitted his hoped-for-narrative.

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