It was pep rally time at Macalester College late this afternoon. And it didn't take much effort from Michelle Obama, and a handful of others, to get the crowd peppy.

Obama, giving a speech she's given hundreds of times before during her 20 months on the campaign trail in support of her husband, threw in enough Minnesota references to make the overflow crowd of  4,500 feel as though they were hearing fresh material.

She noted that in 2004, John Kerry defeated George Bush by just 98,000 votes in Minnesota.

"That's nothing,'' she said, noting that there are "140,000 young people still not registered to vote ... I'm asking you to stand up. The moment is now. Roll up your sleeves.''

She made the collegians in the crowd laugh when she said, "On Election Day, you've got to wake up your roommate and get them to vote, no matter what they were doing the night before. … Right here in Minnesota, the polling places should be packed.''

Jeff Blodgett, director of the Barack Obama campaign in Minnesota, said he doesn't know whether either of the Obamas or vice presidential candidate Joe Biden will be back in the state before Election Day.

Already, the Obama campaign has more than 15,000 volunteers knocking on doors and making phone calls. There were sign-up tables for even more volunteers at both Minnesota appearances today -- in Rochester, where Michelle Obama spoke to a noon crowd of 2,200, and at Macalester.

Todd Palin, spouse of Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, is to visit Bemidji, Duluth and Grand Rapids on Thursday and Moorhead and Thief River Falls on Friday.

Blodgett said that given Palin's interests in such things as snowmobiling, he likely will draw large crowds.

"They will try to make wedge issues around guns and other things, and I suppose that's what Todd Palin will be trying to do,'' said Blodgett, "but we think the whole issue is the economy.''