Obama, in Virginia, promises to help unemployed workers

MARTINSVILLE
 
Democrat Sen. Barack Obama took his presidential campaign to the region with Virginia's highest unemployment and vowed to work to improve life for middle-class workers.
 
"I'm not going to say all the jobs in Martinsville are going to come back if I'm elected president," Obama told about 300 invited guests - most of them blue-collar workers - who gathered at Patrick Henry Community College.
 
"I'm not saying the schools will be fixed," he added. "What I'm saying is that I'm going to wake up every morning thinking about you."
 
The Martinsville area in Southside Virginia has an 11.4 percent unemployment rate because many of its largest manufacturing plants have closed in the past 15 years.
 
Obama said he would end tax breaks for U.S. companies that take jobs overseas.
 
He pledged to push for a $1,000 tax cut for working-class families and eliminate Social Security taxes for senior citizens earning less than $50,000 a year.
 
The 90-minute town-hall meeting kicked off an intensive two-day swing through Virginia by Obama, underscoring the importance of the state in the fall election and heightening speculation that the Democrat might choose Gov. Timothy M. Kaine to run as his vice president.
 
Obama, who is expected to name his running mate this week, did not offer any clues to his selection in Martinsville or during an evening town-hall meeting in Lynchburg.
 
Kaine, widely reported to be on Obama's short list of candidates, is slated to appear with Obama this morning at an event in Chester. Obama is scheduled to campaign in Chesapeake this afternoon.
 
The event in Martinsville, a major stop on the NASCAR circuit, was held in a massive garage at the community college recently built to train students to work on racing crews. Many in the crowd were dressed in jeans and union shirts and caps. Campaign officials said many of the invited guests had been laid off.
 
Obama stressed his differences on economic policies with Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee. Time and again, he linked McCain with President Bush.
 
"How many of you are better off since George Bush took office?" he asked.
 
No hands went up.
 
"How many of you are worse off?"
 
Dozens of hands raised.
 
"John McCain, let's face it, he's got a compelling biography," Obama said. "He's a POW. That's what people think about instead of that he's going to continue the same policies George Bush has been using for the last eight years."
 
Obama added, "John McCain wants to apply additional tax breaks, but he wants to give them to corporations. I want to give them to working families."
 
He was joined in Martinsville by former Gov. Mark Warner, a Democrat who is running for the U.S. Senate. In Lynchburg, Obama was accompanied by U.S. Sen. Jim Webb, a Democrat who is not up for election this year. Obama's message there in front of about 2,000 people who packed the auditorium of E.C. Glass High School was about the same as earlier in the day.
 
Obama lamented to the Martinsville crowd that the middle class has been beset by layoffs and stagnant wages this decade while the price of goods and education has increased.
 
"People aren't sure that the essential part of the American dream - if we work hard and sacrifice, we'll ultimately benefit - is true."
 
He called for expanded national service programs to allow people to defray college tuitions. He promised improved health care for those who have it, and for those who don't, he said, "I'm going to see that you have the same health insurance that we have as members of Congress."
 
Obama offered no blueprint of how he would pay for the programs. "None of this is going to be easy," he acknowledged.
 
In response to questions from the audience, Obama said he is a "strong supporter" of the Employee Free Choice Act, which would guarantee unions the right to try to organize workplaces. He said illegal immigrants should be registered and given a chance to gain citizenship if they learn English and compile a lengthy record of good behavior.
 
Obama's performance drew rave reviews from the strongly Democratic crowd.
 
"I think this is one of the most significant events to happen in Martinsville and Henry County that I can remember," said Tony Millner, a retired factory worker. "I haven't seen so much energy and enthusiasm in a candidate since Robert Kennedy." Millner said he hoped Obama's appearance would draw national attention to the region's problems.
 
"This is the first time a presidential candidate has come here," said Elex Howard, 60, who was recently laid off from a container plant.
 
Howard said he hoped Obama would bring back jobs from overseas. "Anything he does will be more than the Republicans did," he said.
 
Warren Fiske, (804) 697-1565, warren.fiske@pilotonline.com