By Elliott D. Petty

Be sure to check out first installment of ATM Watch this Friday.  We're tracking the presidential candidates and their monetary movements inside California, the "donor state."

What you will not find in that report is Senator Barack Obama's free to the public afternoon rally in South LA.  Why not? Because these California voters got to hear from him first hand without coughing over the maximum contribution limit.

Of course he is scheduled to appear at an expensive fundraiser gala tonight and possibly one more before he takes flight elsewhere.  But we certainly must recognize the freebie.  Hope to see more.

With an estimated crowd of 5,000, Obama did his best to thrill an ethnically diverse crowd.  Many of whom were laying their eyes on him personally for the very first time including myself.

The speech was great, you can appreciate the hype around him.  His main campaign theme appears to emphasize the divide between government and the people.  He draws on President Abraham Lincoln to support this message of hope that Americans can have the audacity to change things.  He rattles off every major movement in American history including the original 13 colonies to revolution, abolition of slavery, civil war, women's suffrage and civil rights.

He subtly suggests the next movement can be the return of government of the people, by the people and for the people through his election as President of the United States.  That's audacious.

Obama could barely name the local elected officials in attendance, not that they matter to his campaign but that may illustrate why he never mentioned any California or Los Angeles specific issues.  Not any, not transportation, not air quality or ocean quality or even the Silicon Valley.  Nothing.

Maybe the big money people will get him to touch on these issues at tonight's soirée.