STEVE INSKEEP, host:
The hurricane has also been Barack Obama's mind; so was Sarah Palin, as we'll hear in a moment. Obama set aside a plan to reach out to union members on Labor Day, and we have a report this morning from NPR's Don Gonyea.
DON GONYEA: On Labor Day, Democratic presidential candidates always make it a point to visit a big city with lots of union jobs to fire up the blue collar vote. And that's what was on the schedule for Senator Obama yesterday.
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Senator BARACK OBAMA (Democrat, Illinois, Presidential Nominee): Thank you, Detroit.
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Sen. OBAMA: Thank you, Motor City.
GONYEA: Hot morning sunshine beat down on a huge crowd at Heart Plaza on the Detroit River. Obama said his plan had been to talk about all the things that labor unions have done for American workers over the course of U.S. history - the 40-hour workweek, health benefits, the minimum wage.
Sen. OBAMA: But I have to tell you that as we meet today, I have to change my plans a little bit.
GONYEA: The senator said that because of Hurricane Gustav, a political speech would be inappropriate on this day. So like John McCain, who all but pulled the plug on the first day of the Republican convention, Obama felt the need for a different approach.
Sen. OBAMA: And I want everybody to remember that there's a time for us to argue politics but there is a time for us to come together as Americans.
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Sen. OBAMA: I know John McCain wants what's best for the people who've been evacuated. I know George Bush wants what's best for them. And so do I.
GONYEA: Barely an hour later, Obama was at another event, this time just down I-75 from Detroit in the small town of Monroe, Michigan. Once again, he was dialing back the political pitch, but he did make a connection between how people come together in the face of a dangerous storm and the kind of approach that could help people facing less epic crises.
He described the loss of a job or the loss of a home as, quote, "a quiet storm."
Sen. OBAMA: We have to understand that not all storms get on TV, but they're there. And the same principle that we had to apply to the storm taking place in Louisiana, we've got to apply right here in Michigan, we've got to apply right across the border in Ohio, we've got to apply it in Washington, D.C., we've got to have it in the state house, we've got to have it in the White House.
GONYEA: It was at a news conference following that event that Senator Obama was asked about Governor Palin's daughter.
Sen. OBAMA: I've heard some of the news on this, so let me be as clear as possible. I have said before and I will repeat again: I think people's families are off limits. And people's children are especially off limits. This shouldn't be part of our politics. It has no relevance to Governor Palin's performance as a governor or her potential performance as a vice president.
GONYEA: The senator added that his mother was 18 when he was born. He said how a family deals with such issues should be off limits as far as politics goes. He even went so far as to tell reporters they should back off from the story.
Then there was a follow-up question about how an unnamed McCain adviser had been quoted, suggesting a possible connection between the Obama campaign and some of the rumors spread on Internet blogs about Palin's daughter.
Sen. OBAMA: Let me repeat. We don't go after people's families. We don't get them involved in the politics. It's not appropriate and it's not relevant. Our people were not involved in any way in this and they will not be. And if I ever thought that there was somebody in my campaign that was involved in something like that, they'd be fired. Okay? All right. Thank you.
GONYEA: From there the senator flew to Milwaukee for another Labor Day rally and another shorter-than-planned speech focusing mostly on the hurricane. Today he's in Chicago monitoring the situation along the Gulf Coast.
Don Gonyea, NPR News, Chicago. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
