Yesterday evening, at a Town Hall event in Kokomo, IN; Barack was introduced by Joe Nelson. Joe is a Kokomo local who was recently laid off from his job at the Kokomo Sanitary Pottery plant.

In this video clip, Barack discusses Joe's story, and how the loss of manufacturing jobs is affecting small towns across the country.

From the Herald Bulletin:

Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama said "the fierce urgency of now" had compelled him to seek the nation's highest office, drawing roars to the rafters in Kokomo's Memorial Gym Friday. The first presidential candidate to visit Kokomo since Ronald Reagan in 1980, Obama drew an audience stunning in its ethnic balance ... [Obama] wasted no time addressing Kokomo's economic woes.

"You can't negotiate over anything except trying to keep the health insurance you've got, your city just passed 7 percent unemployment, you're making $6,000 less on average than the typical American family, and you've lost 4,000 jobs since the start of the Bush administration," Obama said of the City of Firsts.

"I'm running for president because of places like Kokomo, Ind."

... While Obama gave a 40-minute address, he spent another 30 minutes taking questions from the audience of an estimated 2,900.