WILLIAMSPORT -- He came out from behind the curtain and strode to the podium, people chanting, whistling, stomping, screaming. Cameras flashing, the Lycoming College gym sweltering, cheers reaching a frenzied pitch.
Because there he was, real as the unseasonable April heat: Sen. Barack Obama had arrived in Williamsport on Friday.
"Hello everybody!" he called out.
More cheers.
"I'm going to get rid of my jacket. It's warm in here. Reggie, would you take this?" the Democratic presidential candidate said, handing his coat to a man standing behind him.
"This is Reggie Love -- he's from Duke. Any Duke fans here?"
Scattered boos.
"Uh oh."
After Obama finished his heat-related shtick and thank yous Friday (to Lycoming College for having him, to U.S. Sen. Bob Casey for introducing him, etc.), he began a 30-minute speech about his plans for the country, touching on everything from the economy, to the environment, to Iraq, to the state of U.S. railroads.
Obama, of Illinois, faces Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York in Tuesday's Pennsylvania primary election.
"I'm running for president because of what Dr. King called the fierce urgency of night," Obama said of the late Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. "There's such a thing as being too late, and that hour is almost upon us now.
"We have one war we need to win (Afghanistan) ... and one that never should have been waged in the first place."
Obama harped on the country's spending $400 million a day -- $10 billion a month -- on the Iraq war. Money, he said, that could be put to better use at home.
"Our economy is in shambles," he said. "Lycoming County's unemployment rate is the highest it's been in three years, and it's the same all over the country."
Obama used this point -- the U.S. economy -- to underline a difference between him and presumptive Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain of Arizona.
"McCain (recently) said our economy made great progress under Bush's tenure," the senator said, pausing as a smattering of boos washed over him.
"Keep in mind this is the guy who called me out of touch.
"Whatever differences I have with Senator Clinton, they pale in comparison to the differences I have with John McCain."
Obama on Friday touched on many of the same points he's been hammering home for 15 months.
"Our politics are broken," he said. "We need to change how business is done in Washington. You need somebody who will put an end to the game-playing in Washington, D.C."
His appearance seemed to go over well with the audience.
"He was on point," Williamsport resident Curtis Patterson, 56, said. "What we need in this country is a change."
An African-American, Patterson said it was "high time" the country embraces its first black president.
Nineteen-year-old William Stropnicky, of Danville, enjoyed Obama's speech.
"He was wonderful. He's a majestic speaker. I've been planning to vote for him for a long time," Stropnicky said.
Jessie Bloom, chairwoman of the Lycoming County Democrats, was similarly impressed with Obama, though she plans to vote for Clinton Tuesday.
"I just don't think he has enough experience," she said, "particularly in foreign policy."
n E-mail comments to dgessel@dailyitem.com.
2008 Primary
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