Minister of Hope and Change Preaches for 'Collective Salvation'

The great unwashed swoon and the Supreme Being Obama speaks.

Just imagine a Republican talking like this and the cacophony of wailing about separation of church and state that would follow.

Instead, the media is mesmerized by the great orator.

Barack Obama, standing in for Senator Edward M. Kennedy as commencement speaker at Wesleyan University, invoked the Kennedy family's legacy of public service and challenged students to look beyond material gains and work for our ``collective salvation.''

``No one is forcing you to care,'' Obama said. ``You can take your diploma, walk off this stage and chase only after the big house and the nice suits and all the other things that our money culture says you should buy. But I hope you don't.''

Big house and nice suits. Like the kind he has?

With a commanding lead in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, Obama said that if he is elected he will call upon the students and the nation to ``be unified in service to a greater good. I intend to make it a cause of my presidency.''

A blog at the Hartford Courant gushes.

On the way in, I met the MIller family, a mom, her two daughters and son, who came from all over Ct and NYC to see Obama - big Obama fans, they said, and the only reason they are here.

"Obama is like back from the sixties, said the mom, who called herself a diehard hippy.

"Obama is like back in the sixties, he makes you feel like you did back in the sixties...a sense of inspiration. He's somebody you can believe in, his mission of hope speaks to this wide group of sexes and races," she said.

Her daughter was more blunt, she said Obama is 'America's last hope,' and if he doesn't succeed, she fears nothing will. "Oh don't say that, that's not true!" said her mom.

Apparently it's OK for Obama to invoke Bobby Kennedy.

"We need you to help lead," Obama said. "It's about time to avoid catastrophic consequences in our world...all it takes is an act of service that act Robert F. Kennedy called one tiny ripple...One act from you. I am asking you and if I have the honor of serving this nation as president, I will be aksing again and again in the coming years."

There's more hope.

Umotibol, a handsome young man with a Nigerian name from West Hartford came specifcally to listen. He likens Obama to John F. Kennedy because both men inspire and give hope to people "He's an inspiration, not just to the African American community but to the United states and the world abroad, there's a negative hatred that is coming it, it's awful...I'm thinking Obama gives us hope, they talk about Obama in relation to JFK...I'm hoping for that kind of leadership."