Adam Nagourney tells a story of a low-key campaign, undergirded by raw moments like this one at the V.F.W. Hall in Dakota City:
Mr. Obama was approached by a woman, her eyes wet. She spoke into his ear and began to weep, collapsing into his embrace. They stood like that for a full minute, Mr. Obama looking ashen, before she pulled away. She began crying again, Mr. Obama pulled her in for another embrace.
The woman left declining to give her name or recount their conversation. Mr. Obama said she told him what had happened to her 20-year-old son, who was serving in Iraq.
"Her son died," he said. He paused. "What can you say? This happens to me every single place I go."
The next day, at the rally here, Mr. Obama described the encounter for the crowd. The woman, he said, had asked if her son’s death was the result of a mistake by the government. "And I told her the service of our young men and women the duty they show this country that’s never a mistake," he said.