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The speeches sound a lot alike by now. At "official events" and at "campaign events," President Obama's message is nearly the same. He speaks of "fighting" to dig America out of its current troubles, rails against just-say-no Republicans in Congress, and enumerates the challenges he would tackle if he wins another term.

If the president's event is officially presidential, there are a few distinguishing features: He motors through tiny hamlets in a fearsome black bus dubbed Ground Force One, and stops (in shirt sleeves) along the route to shake hands, or to buy some candy … or sweet tea … or cheeseburgers, and to pose for tiny cellphone pictures with the sort of T-shirt-clad folks who don't expect to see presidents pulling into their parking lots.

The object of attention, at least this week during Obama’s three-day bus trip through North Carolina and Virginia, has been students, farmers, funeral home directors, landscapers, retirees and daycare operators who sometimes confided to Obama that they may be lukewarm about the job he’s doing but are proud he stopped by.

If it’s a “campaign” trip, the costs of which are shared with contributors, Obama flies to big cities on Air Force One, motorcades to luxe hotels or posh private homes to pose for glamorous photos that require big donations. He hails well-dressed attendees as old friends, shakes a lot of manicured hands and speaks (jacket on), for not more than a half-hour before jetting away to repeat the whole thing in a similar locale.

Obama will be in large metro areas in Nevada, California and Colorado next week for just such a fundraising blitz.

Official and campaign events have another theme in common: the quest for 270 electoral votes next year via persuaded voters and generous donors means the government’s shiny Darth Vader bus and Air Force One idle only in states the president won in 2008 and would like to win again.

The bus route Obama has traveled this week from Asheville, N.C., into Virginia zigzagged through counties he captured in 2008, counties that also offered the president some major markets for news coverage, and were home to some important college campuses, including some of North Carolina’s 11 historically black colleges and universities, where organizing for the incumbent president next year could prove just as essential as it was last time.

In 2008, Obama won Buncombe and Guilford counties in North Carolina, home to Asheville and Greensboro. While driving between the two locations this week, the president also stopped in Wilkes County, which overwhelmingly backed John McCain for president. Obama highlighted this fact Tuesday, telling an audience that someone asked him “why I was visiting Republican areas of North Carolina.” His explanation: “I’m not the Democratic president or Republican president. I’m the president.” They applauded.