Klobuchar touts Obama's mantra of change

DENVER — In a short speech Monday, Amy Klobuchar joined a chorus of speakers making the case for Barack Obama and his mantra of change.

The senator from Minnesota reminisced about being part of the Democratic revolution when she was elected in 2006. That was when she first spoke to Obama. He called her when she was driving to Washington in her Saturn (with her family and "shower curtain from 1985") to begin her term.

She made it clear that her traveling style is a little different from a certain high-profile fellow senator's. "Unlike the senator from Arizona, my family doesn't have a private jet," Klobuchar said in a reference to John McCain.

So, on that long drive from Minnesota, Klobuchar said she got a call from the senator from Illinois. "Obama already was determined to break the lobbyist's lock on Washington." By the time she arrived in the nation's capital, Klobuchar said, Obama "had all the freshmen on the phone to put an ethics plan in place."

"He's already started, and he'll finish the job as president," Klobuchar told delegates. "We need to elect a president we can trust. It's time to take back the White House."

Minnesota delegates seemed pleased (she had asked them at breakfast: "I need you guys to be loud!"). Not too many other delegates seemed to pay much attention.

"You block that out and look at the people who are looking at you," said Klobuchar after her speech. "It's fun to do. I've done it before (four years ago) so I wasn't that nervous. The hall was smaller (than four years ago) and so you can see the people's faces."

Tonight, Klobuchar is scheduled to speak again from the convention floor. She will join three other women senators in making short presentations on "change" in advance of Sen. Clinton's speech. She calls herself "the closer" in that format, because she'll be the last to speak.

Marisa Helms is a former award-winning metro-area reporter for Minnesota Public Radio.