I've got Jewel's "Who will save your soul?" song stuck in my head after listening to this speech by Michelle Obama, wife of Democratic presidential hopeful Barack, from a campaign rally a couple weeks back at UCLA.

Captain Ed has helpfully provided a partial transcript of the remarks.

In 2008, we are still a nation that is too divided. We live in isolation, and because of that isolation, we fear one another. We don't know our neighbors, we don't talk, we believe our pain is our own. We don't realize that the struggles and challenges of all of us are the same. We are too isolated. And we are still a nation that is still too cynical. We look at it as "them" and "they" as opposed to "us". We don't engage because we are still too cynical. ...

Americans are not in debt because they live frivolously but because someone got sick. Even with insurance, the deductibles and the premiums are so high that people are still putting medications and treatments on credit cards. And they can't get out from under. I could go on and on, but this is how we're living, people, in 2008.

And things have gotten progressively worse throughout my lifetime, through Democratic and Republican administrations, it hasn't gotten better for regular folks. ....

We have lost the understanding that in a democracy, we have a mutual obligation to one another -- that we cannot measure the greatness of our society by the strongest and richest of us, but we have to measure our greatness by the least of these. That we have to compromise and sacrifice for one another in order to get things done. That is why I am here, because Barack Obama is the only person in this who understands that. That before we can work on the problems, we have to fix our souls. Our souls are broken in this nation.

You can see why I've got Jewel's song stuck in my head. I also keep thinking: "I'm from the government and I'm here to help fix your soul."

But that's not the whole transcript, and that's not the part that troubled me. It was what came next that had me thinking that Barack Obama isn't a political leader, he's a religious leader. He's the head of some weird cult.

If we can't see ourselves in one another we will never make those sacrifices. So I am here right now because I am married to the only person in this race who has a chance of healing this nation.

The first major decision he had to make in his life, after college: "Do I go to Wall Street to make money or do I work for the people?" Barack worked as a community organizer in some of the toughest neighborhoods on the south side of Chicago, helping young mothers find their voice and their power. Folks who had a reason to be cynical because government had forgotten them long ago. There is no one else in this race who can claim that kind of committment to people on the ground. No one. And I would think as a nation like ours...

Barack, as Oprah said, is one of the most brilliant men you will meet in our lifetime. Barack is more than ready. He is ready today. He will be ready on day one. He'll be ready in a year from now, five years from now. He is ready. That is not the question. The question is what are we ready for? Wait, wait, wait. Because we say we're ready for change, we say we're ready for change, but see, change is hard. Change will always be hard and it doesn't happen from the top down. We do not get universal health care, we don't get better schools, because somebody else is in the White House. We get change because folks from the grassroots up decide they are sick and tired of other people telling them how their lives will be. When they decide to roll up their sleeves and work. And Barack Obama will require you to work. He is going to demand that you shed your cynicism. That you put down your division. That you come out your isolation. That you come out of your comfort zones. That you push yourselves to be better. And that you engage. Barack will never allow you to go back to your lives as usual. Uninvolved. Uninformed.

We have young kids all over this world who are looking to this nation and they're trying to figure out who we are and what we want to become. We have a chance, not just to make history, but we can change the world. We can change the world. Yes, we can. (6 times).

Even though you've read it. I encourage you to listen to it too. Barack is lauded as an exceptional speaker, but Michelle is quite talented too. The last two parts sounded a whole lot more than a religious "come to Jesus" talk than it did any political speech I've ever heard before. Especially that line about Barack "never allow[ing] you to go back to your lives as usual." This is religious talk. These aren't the sort of things that a politician promises, ridding the people of cynicism, division, isolation. If Mike Huckabee talked this way, Chris Hedges, Jim Wallis and most separation-of-church-and-state Democrats would be having fits.

I won't even address the laughable claim that Obama is the only person who can heal this nation. I'm not one who's going to be swooning if Obama's elected.