…there was Wilco, Macy Gray, and Third Eye Blind.

The bands were among those who came to Chicago’s Riviera Theater last night for an Obama fundraiser-rally. Tickets started at $35 – for that supporters/concert goers got to hear each of the bands play several songs (and give a political shout-out to Obama) and a fiery stump speech from the candidate himself, who announced, “It turns out we might win.”

Here’s a sampling from the night – sans, of course, Macy Gray forgetting the lyrics to “Winter Wonderland” and incoherently asking the crowd, “Has anyone ever really met Santa Claus? Not the one in the mall, but have you ever had Santa Claus come to your house and give you a bunch of stuff? Do you have his number?”

Oprah Winfrey is traveling with Senator Obama today through Iowa, and will head to South Carolina and New Hampshire with the candidate tomorrow.

That won’t be the end of Obama’s star-studded campaign schedule. On Monday night, Obama will head to Los Angeles to rally with celebrities Jessica Biel, Taye Diggs, and Scarlett Johansson.

Chicago, IL — Rudy Giuliani declared that Americans should not expect a “pretense of perfection” from candidates running for office and says he respects Barack Obama’s “honesty” for discussing his previous drug use with a group of high schoolers today.

The Illinois Senator is receiving criticism from Mitt Romney, among others, for opening up and discussing past mistakes during a town hall at a Manchester, NH High School Tuesday.

“I made some bad decisions that I’ve written about, there were times when I got into drinking and experimented with drugs.. there was a whole stretch of time when i didn’t really apply myself a lot,” Obama told the group.

Giuliani said he believes Obama’s topic of conversation was completely appropriate.

“I respect his honesty in doing that. I think that one of the things we need from our people who are running for office is not this pretense of perfection,” Giuliani said. “The reality is all of us that run for public office, whether its governor, legislator, mayor, president–we are all human beings. If we haven’t made mistakes don’t vote for us cause we got some big ones that are gonna happen in the future and we wont know how to handle them.”

The former NYC mayor has been forthright about admitting his own mistakes during the campaign–most recently dogged by his connection to indicted former NYC Police Commissioner Bernie Kerik–even noting in two recent television ads that he is not perfect.

But fellow Republican contender Mitt Romney feels differently, saying Obama committed a “huge error.”

“It’s just not a good idea for people running for President of the United States who potentially could be the role model for a lot of people to talk about their personal failings while they were kids because it opens the doorway to other kids thinking, ‘well I can do that too and become President of the United States,’” Romney told an Iowa audience today. “I think that was a huge error by Barack Obama…it is just the wrong way for people who want to be the leader of the free world.”