Homestretch frenzy

Even now, Obama has emotion checked

Election 2008

"In a marathon, when you are on mile 20 you start getting tired, but when you are on mile 25 you don't," said Lippert, who has grown familiar with Obama's travel rhythms while accompanying him on the four foreign trips he has taken since becoming a senator. "That's where he's at."

Whatever emotion he feels as his candidacy draws to a close, he displays little of it, either in public appearances or private conversations with his close advisers. The air of confidence that he exudes, which some critics castigate as arrogance, grew in part out of the primary, when he worked to avoid perceptions that he was weak or not ready.

But now, he is described by friends as feeling as though he has been thoroughly tested and is prepared to take on the job he has spent 22 months fighting for. Still, it is hard for even those closest to Obama to fathom what these days are precisely like, even for the imperturbable - often inscrutable - senator from Illinois.

His world is awash in powerful, conflicting emotions: the realization, presumably, that he may be about to become president; the huge optimism that he has unleashed, evident in the crowds he is drawing (and something he has told aides worries him a bit, given the expectations set for him); the weighty thinking he is gradually giving to how he would staff a government and deal with a transition in such a difficult time. All of this is taking place at a time where the woman who played a large role in raising him, his grandmother, is approaching death.

"What if I disappoint people?" Valerie Jarrett, a close friend and adviser, recalled Obama asking at several points throughout the campaign. "That's what gives him the energy to keep getting up every day."