Speaking to a crowd of about 2,000 in Birmingham tonight, Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama described himself as a “hope monger” with more to offer the country than the current occupant of the White House.

The event at the downtown Sheraton ballroom was a small-donation fundraiser for the Obama campaign, which has prided itself in its large number of small donations. Attendees paid $25 each to hear the senator speak.

Earlier in the day in Huntsville and later Monday night at the home of HealthSouth CEO Jay Grinney, a smaller number of more generous donors paid as much as $2,300 for a more direct audience with the Illinois senator.

Speaking to the Birmingham crowd, Obama punched all the partisan buttons, blasting the Bush administration for having “a philosophy of can’t do, won’t do and won’t even try.”

“We know what is wrong and that’s before we even get to Scooter,” Obama said, referring to the former vice presidential assistant whose prison sentence President Bush commuted last week.

According to Obama, the current administration has crafted no energy policy, let healthcare bankrupt ordinary Americans, made the country more dependent on foreign oil and widened the gap between rich and poor.

“And then there is this war that should never have been authorized,” Obama said, drawing a roar from the crowd.

Obama recounted his experience as a community organizer in Chicago, an experience he says taught him the “core decency of the American people that is not being captured by our politics.”

“It was the best education I ever had,” Obama said. “It was better than anything I learned in Harvard or Colombia University, because it taught me that ordinary people can do extra ordinary things when they’re given the chance.”

Obama is among numerous presidential candidates who have campaigned in Alabama this year. In 2008, Alabama will hold its presidential primary on Feb. 5. The from the later June date has been followed by about 20 other states, making the first Tuesday in February a virtual national primary that some are calling “Super-duper Tuesday.”

— Kyle Whitmire