From Bloomberg:

David Eisenhower teaches a class at the University of Pennsylvania on important American political speeches. Senator Barack Obama, with last week's address on race and politics, gave him a new course.

"It was a very powerful speech," says Eisenhower, whose grandfather was president of the United States and supreme allied commander in World War II. "Obama gives a very compelling reason as to why this is his time."

...There have been analogies to John F. Kennedy's 1960 speech on his Catholicism before a group of Protestant ministers in Houston. Eisenhower says it was more like Robert F. Kennedy's 1968 talk to a black audience in Indianapolis, when he informed them Martin Luther King Jr. had been slain.

In that speech, Bobby Kennedy said people had a choice between turning justifiable anger into "greater polarization" or channeling it into something positive to get beyond racial divisions. Last week in Philadelphia Obama said whites and blacks also faced a choice this year of continuing racial differences and stereotypes or beginning a conversation about common ground.

... "Like Robert Kennedy, Obama used this as a teaching moment," says Eisenhower.

... Susan Hoffman, a 52-year-old Houston lawyer and a self-described Bush Republican, was blown away by the Philadelphia address: "It was a profile in courage. It was so much different than the typical political speech." She believes Obama, perhaps more than any politician in her lifetime, "understands the validity of everyone's viewpoint, he incorporates that into his thinking and approach."

From the New York Daily News:

Following his speech on race and the surprise endorsement of New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, Barack Obama got a bump in a nationwide Gallup Poll and has squeaked ahead of Hillary Clinton. Obama topped Clinton, 48% to 45%, over the weekend, reversing a more than week-long dip.

From the Philadelphia Daily News:

Hsiya Posner, 31, has never worked on a political campaign before.

But on Saturday, she found herself standing in front of a Target store in Philadelphia wearing an "Obama for President" sticker and asking shoppers if they'd like to register to vote as a Democrat.

"We've already registered between 30 and 40 people," said Posner, who brought her 22-year-old sister along. "We're finding people are changing parties, and we're seeing first-time voters in their 30s and 40s who haven't been involved before. They connect with Obama."

For Barack Obama, that's the plan, and this was a big weekend.

Today is the deadline to register to vote or to change your party affiliation in Pennsylvania - a state where only registered party members cast ballots in a primary election.

... "The Obama people have clearly made a concerted effort to get people registered," said Jon Delano, a political analyst at Carnegie Mellon University. "I was at their headquarters the other day and all their people were calling [unregistered voters] and trying to get them to register to vote."

Obama volunteers have been streaming into Pennsylvania to help over the weekend, including Caroline Kennedy, who signed up voters at shopping centers in Buck County and other gathering points.

... According to state voting records, Democratic registration has soared across the state since last fall. From November through March 10, enrollment has increased by 111,000 - a roughly 3 percent bump.

From the Tartan:

Students for Barack Obama, which was formed last year and became active on campus about two months ago, has focused almost entirely on on-campus voter registration. As of last Thursday, the group had registered several hundred voters in last week alone, and stationed themselves at Saturday's Greek Sing to register more, according to Mauro.

"I see this as a turning point for our generation and an opportunity for us to take hold of the direction our country is taking, and that is the reason that Barack resonates with me so much and the vision he has for our country," Mauro said.

Next, the group will continue to focus on building its volunteer base along with excitement levels, Mauro said. The organization will be working with students at Duquesne University, Chatham University, and the University of Pittsburgh to spread the news.

"We all have the same message and the same goal," Mauro said. "If you can get everyone together, great things are going to happen."

... It is hard to believe that Carnegie Mellon was ranked the most politically apathetic college or university by The Princeton Review in 2002. Since then, the air at Carnegie Mellon has become more politically charged — not only has the university been bumped from the list entirely, but it's been students themselves who have led the transformation by sporting buttons and t-shirts in support of the prospective presidential candidates and manning voter registration tables, encouraging their peers to register or re-register to become eligible to vote in the Pennsylvania primaries on April 22.

"We want to spread the energy and excitement we have to campus to get people ready for the primary," said Maria Mauro, a sophomore biology and political science major and co-founder of Carnegie Mellon Students for Barack Obama.

From the Philadelphia Inquirer:

Last week I registered as a Democrat, no small step for a long-contented Chester County Republican. Weaned on William F. Buckley Jr., I was a teenage Barry Goldwater adherent in 1964. My first job was in the administration of New York City Republican Mayor John Lindsay, and my second was in the executive offices of New York Republican Gov. Nelson Rockefeller.

One does not lightly abandon such deep political roots.

In any other year, I give this primary season a pass and vote Republican in November.

This is not any other year, nor any other vote.

I became a Democrat to cast an April 22 Pennsylvania primary vote that I believe will be the most important of my lengthy political life.

... This country today is more in need of new energies and perspectives in the White House than in 1960 when John Kennedy electrified my generation, or in the 1980s when Ronald Reagan won resounding mandates to reverse long-entrenched policy approaches. Indeed, today we are at a critical public-policy juncture and at a generational crossroads at the very same time the legitimacy of our political processes hangs in the balance.

... For decades, the politics of identity, indignation and inertia has substituted theatrics and machination for deliberation and decision, and the younger you are, the more you will be burdened with bills not paid and decisions deferred. Yet, no American under 50 has ever entered a presidential voting booth without a Bush or Clinton as a presidential or vice presidential choice. I shudder at the thought of extending that to 36 years.

Abraham Lincoln served two years in Congress more than a decade before his inauguration. Most of his political career was as an Illinois legislator. In two tries for the Senate, he withdrew once, lost the second time. Yet he became our greatest president by rallying the country around foundation principles while deftly managing fractious politics.

I am registering Democratic to cast my vote for another ex-Illinois legislator with a relatively short time in Washington who offers a unifying vision, cross-generational appeal, a proven deft touch, and an ability to lead this country through tough times to the better place it needs to be.

Barack Obama.