While I was sitting in the auditorium on Sunday night, waiting for the Obama rally to start, I called my editor back in York to get some cell phone numbers for local Democratic party officials, in case they were there in Harrisburg. When I called, my editor informed me that Hillary Clinton was going to be in Harrisburg at 1 p.m. the next afternoon.

Dang! I mean it's an exciting time to be covering politics and all, but ... dang!

It really was a last-minute thing. Abe Amoros, acting director of the Pennsylvania Democratic Party, happened to be sitting behind me Sunday night. And when I asked him about the Clinton appearance, it was news to him.

The crowd waiting to see Obama was really excited. The Forum in Harrisburg has a capacity of about 1,700. And that's about how many people showed up at the next morning's event, which took place in an auditorium at the Thaddeus Stevens College of Technology in Lancaster. Some local Democrats told me that all of the tickets for both events got snapped up really quick.

I might as well combine my accounts of the Harrisburg and Lancaster rallies, since they were much the same.

The only significant difference, from my perspective, is that more prominent local Democrats attended the Lancaster event, including York Mayor John Brenner (Obama supporter) and York County Democratic Party chairman Mike Johnson (uncommitted between Obama and Clinton). York City Council President Cameron Texter was also in Lancaster. As I've previously mentioned, he was at a Hillary Clinton rally earlier in March. But he's actually an Obama supporter.

Before each rally, I tried to find York County people in the lines of people waiting to get in. There were plenty at both.

One York woman at the Harrisburg rally told me what she likes about Obama is that he speaks from the heart, and clearly isn't going from a script. I found that interesting.

The thing is, he is going from a script. I confirmed that the next morning, when I heard him deliver much the same speech. That's not a criticism. Composing a new speech on the spot for months of campaign appearances would be a bit much to ask of even the most accomplished public speaker.

But I could see how someone would feel that way. Obama comes across as very relaxed, very natural, when he's speaking. He would occasionally play off the crowd, creating little moments of spontaneity.

Several years back, I won a stand-up comedy contest that a local radio station sponsored. As a result, I performed at a couple of subsequent shows the station put on in the area, and I had the privilege of watching local comedian and radio personality Earl David Reed perform three different times.

Reed is a very funny, talented and clever man -- as good as any comedian I've ever seen.

The first night I was amazed to see him present an hour's worth of material that he apparently made up on the spot. I was impressed.

The next night, I realized that he really hadn't made it up on the spot. It was mostly prepared material. But he'd integrate the prepared material with improvisations based on interactions with the audience, integrating it all so seamlessly that it seemed spontaneous.

I was even more impressed!

I noticed that Obama used a similar technique, interacting with the audience and deviating from the script just enough that you could believe he wasn't delivering a prepared speech, but speaking extemporaneously. It's a very powerful technique, and Obama is quite good at it.

After he spoke for 30 minutes or so, he took questions from the audience. He spoke unhesitatingly on a number of issues. As in my phone interview with him, I noticed he had a knack for mentioning a number of his policy proposals in the course of addressing a single issue.

I admire the fact that he was willing to take questions from the audience in a venue like that. Some candidates are so obsessed with staying on-script that they might as well send animatronic puppets to their public appearances.

I realize it's possible that the audience members asking questions were plants, but I doubt it. All of the questions that came up in Harrisburg were softballs. But audience members did ask a couple of potentially awkward questions in Lancaster.

One woman, for example, asked why he had voted to reauthorize The Patriot Act. Obama replied that many of the Bush administration's more controversial measures in the aftermath of Sept. 11, such as warrantless wiretaps, came by executive order rather than through The Patriot Act. He said that as president, he would review all of those executive orders, and do away with the ones he considers improper.

He also said he considered some elements of The Patriot Act necessary. For example, before the act's passage, there was no legal provision for putting taps on wireless phones.

Another audience member, apparently a Ron Paul supporter, asked Obama about the super-secret plan to combine the monetary systems of the U.S., Canada and Mexico.

Obama said he opposed NAFTA, but he saw "no evidence" that the combined monetary system plan actually exists.

I suspect that sometimes the hardest part of being a candidate is refraining from visibly rolling your eyes.