VIDEOS: Obama draws diverse crowd to Farmington Hills

Driving down Thirteen Mile Road on Monday afternoon it wasn’t hard to spot where Obama would speak. In front of North Farmington High School in Farmington Hills, boulders jutting from the front lawn had “Barack Obama” spray-painted in red, white and blue and lines were forming all around the building. And aside from all the people and cars, something else was obvious: diversity.

The crowd gathering resembled central casting for an episode of a public television children’s show.

At the town hall style event, Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama addressed a crowd of 1,500 and attacked his Republican rivals Sen. John McCain and Gov. Sarah Palin calling them, “out of touch” and “shameless.”

His speech was very informal, as he seemed at ease on stage, joking about one supporter who got lipstick on his cheek as he entered the venue. People from all backgrounds were cheering on Obama, young and old.

One woman, Brenda Frasier, 67, was there with her granddaughter. “I had to wait in two lines,” said Frasier, who had also waited in line to get free tickets at 6 a.m. “I’d do it all over again,” she said.

Her granddaughter, Shawna, 14, was all smiles. “He gets it,” she said looked at her new pictures of him on her digital camera.

Obama seemed so comfortable on stage, the event lost the stiffness that many political stump speeches tend to have.

Obama did not hesitate in slamming McCain for calling himself a change agent or for saying that he would say “no” to lobbyists. He pointed out that McCain’s campaign staff is full of lobbyists. Obama also held Palin’s feet to the fire on the “Bridge to Nowhere” issue; pointing out that initially she was for it.

The senator from Illinois spoke for almost an hour, taking multiple questions from the audience and answering them with confidence.

The featured videos are from his visit at the Farmington Hills venue Monday evening.