Obama in Eugene, Oregon

Obama in Bend Oregon

( go Bend! Some of my family used to live there! )

Sen. Barack Obama probably did not need to make a surprise appearance Friday at the Twilight Meet at the University of Oregon.

… But such is this moment for Obama that it seemed natural to indulge in a little affirmation. As his bus pulled up, he strode onto the handsome old track just as the women’s 5K was ending. A murmur went through the crowd, the public-address announcer confirmed his arrival, and the action came to a halt as 5,000 track fans rose as one to cheer the senator from Illinois who appears suddenly on the verge of claiming his party’s presidential nomination. The javelin hurlers dropped their equipment, and the 400-meter hurdlers paused in their warm-ups as a waving Obama made his way around one of the country’s most famous tracks bathed in late-afternoon sunlight — a victory lap.

“You guys are just so fast. I congratulate you,” Obama said as he reached the finish line, where the 5K runners still waited — as if the applause was for anyone but him.

… He is officially on guard against seeming overconfident, saying at every turn that he is still running hard against a tough primary opponent. His campaign is well aware that he faces the prospect of a thumping in the upcoming primaries in West Virginia and Kentucky.

Yet here, in a state where he is strongly favored to win, his stump speeches seem less like bids for votes than a chance for fans to see their hero and hear his pitch one last time before he moves on to the next stage. At an outdoor rally on the university campus after his visit to the track, Obama declared that the state’s May 20 vote could be the one that gives him a clear majority of pledged delegates.

And he adopted a retrospective tone, taking stock of the 15-month campaign that has brought him close to defeating a heavily favored former first lady backed by a powerful political machine. He expressed regret for having allowed his campaign to indulge in some of the tit-for-tats that he decries.

“There’ve been times where you get whacked so many times that after a time, you feel you have to whack back. You’ve got to go negative. You don’t want to look like a wimp,” he said. “The times . . . I’m most proud of is when we resisted the impulse, and the times that I’m least proud of is when we succumbed to that impulse.”

… But such challenges seem distant for Obama and the crowds turning out to see him. In Eugene, Dennis and Anastasia Sandow, Democrats in their 50s, lined up three hours early for a spot squeezed against a police barrier, with poor sightlines. But they had to be there, they said — not to decide whom to vote for next week, but to witness history.