“The problem is that he has said so much stuff that our culture and our media has just gotten so reality TV-ized,” he said. “I know that’s not a word. But you get my drift. It becomes normal when somebody just says wacky stuff.”

Mr. Obama told the crowd of about 4,500 people, who reflected the diversity of South Florida, that he could understand why many would want to ignore the election. “Sometimes you just want to focus on the Cubs winning the World Series,” he said.

Mr. Obama then said he had been watching TV the previous night when someone pointed out that sliced bread had not been invented the last time the Cubs had won a World Series title.

“So this is actually for Cubs fans the greatest thing since sliced bread,” Mr. Obama said.

Again diverging from his stump speech, he said that while driving through North Carolina on Wednesday, he had noticed that gas was selling for $1.99 per gallon.

“I think in 2008, I think they were predicting that if Obama got elected, gas would be $6,” Mr. Obama said. “So sometimes it’s useful to check the tape. See what they said before. It turns out what they said was wrong. So what that means is what they’re saying now is probably also wrong.”

He paused.

“I just wanted to give that little detour. Yeah. Thanks, Obama,” he said, and the crowd roared.

At every event, teleprompters are set up beside a lectern with the presidential seal on its front. But Mr. Obama only occasionally seems to glance at the monitors nowadays, having delivered this stump speech again and again over the past month. He now peppers his criticisms of Republicans with a line — “Come on, man!” — that his audience knows is coming and screams in response when he uses.

“I know I’ve gone on too long,” Mr. Obama said near the end of his speech here. “My staff is going to talk to me about it.”