Democratic presidential frontrunner Barack Obama, saying voters are "ready to write a new chapter in American history," said here today he would fight the status quo in Washington if elected.

"I'm running because of what Dr. (Martin Luther) King called the fierce urgency of now," Obama told nearly 2,000 cheering supporters at the Thaddeus Stevens College of Technology on East King Street.

"Because I believe that there's such a thing as being too late. And that hour is almost upon us," Obama said. "We are at a defining moment in our history. Our nation is at war. We just marked the fifth anniversary of the war in Iraq, a war I believe never should have been authorized and never should have been waged."

The U.S. senator from Illinois, who faces an uphill climb in Pennsylvania just three weeks from the primary, also criticized the Bush administration's handling of the sagging economy, the controversial No Child Left Behind education program, and the lack of progress on making health care affordable.

"Our education system, despite the slogans, leaves millions of children behind," Obama said. "In such circumstances, we can't afford to wait. We can't wait to fix our schools. We can't wait to fix our health-care system.

"We can't wait to bring back good jobs and wages. We can't wait for a sensible energy policy. We can't wait to bring this war in Iraq to a close," Obama said. "We can't wait. That's why I'm running for president of the United States, right here and right now."

The setting for Obama's speech was relatively intimate as political events go. Obama, dressed in a conservative charcoal suit and maroon tie, spoke from a modest, 10-by-10 platform surrounded at just an arm's length on all sides by supporters inside the John E. Barley Multipurpose Activity Center.

Behind him, underneath a sign reading "CHANGE WE CAN BELIEVE IN," sat some 75 supporters who had been hand-picked from the crowd. The audience was demographically diverse — a mix of races and ages, from college-age teens to senior citizens and families who brought young children.

"I haven't seen this kind of excitement since Kennedy," said Pat Coller, a local Obama campaign worker, referring to John F. Kennedy's 1960 campaign stop in Penn Square, which drew some 15,000 people. "This is truly a bottom-up campaign. This is not the normal way politics is run."

Obama's campaign stop here came on the fourth day of his six-day "Road to Change" bus tour across the state. The tour kicked off Friday in Pittsburgh and traveled to Johnstown on Saturday.

The 61,000-square-foot multipurpose center was divided in half by a curtain for this morning's event. About 1,000 supporters jammed into the bleachers, and another 250 stood on a second-story running track looking down at Obama. At floor level, some 585 people sat on fold-out chairs closest to Obama.

Obama spent much of speech talking about policy. But he also displayed a personal side.

"This is the fourth day of our six-day bus tour in Pennsylvania, and I have been having a good time," he said. "I've had a great time. We've played some basketball with (U.S. Sen.) Bob Casey, and neither of us got injured. We have stopped by some sports bars, I must admit, and had a few beers. This is true.

"I fed a calf with a big bottle, and that went alright, and then went bowling, which didn't go so well," he said to laughter. "There was an 8-year-old who was giving me tips."

Before the doors to Stevens opened at 8 this morning, a line of more than 1,000 people stretched for more than a city block along New Dauphin Street and into the Stevens campus.

Lancaster Mayor Rick Gray, who serves on Obama's statewide leadership council, described it as "a great scene ... a lot of enthusiastic people, up early in the morning to see the next president. We're excited."

In all, 1,850 people claimed tickets to the event Saturday morning at Obama's Lancaster County headquarters, on Harrisburg Pike. "The idea was to make this a town meeting, so we were not permitted to bring in all our students, faculty and staff," Stevens President William E. Griscom said.

Among them were husband and wife John and Chris Furry of Lancaster. Mr. Furry, 62, described himself as a lifelong Republican who is supporting Obama.

"I still believe in many of the philosophies of the Republican Party," he said. "I generally support this party but not this administration."

His wife, 61, is also planning to vote for Obama. "I think he is the future of the country — the flavor, the diversity," she said.

Before the rally, Obama came outside the gym to briefly talk to about 150 people, including those with tickets and some Stevens students, all of whom could not get in the rally because the gym was full.

He shook some hands and told the group that with their grass-roots support, "We're going to change the world."

Kelly Donnelly, 29, Landisville, and her fiancé, Alex Pabon, 26, Lancaster, were among the crowd of people who had tickets, but who were still not allowed inside the school.

While some people left, Donnelly said she and Pabon, along with about 100 other people were still outside when someone from the Secret Service came out and announced that Obama would be coming out to speak with them.

"We could see him coming down (a glass enclosed) stairway," to a side door of the school, Donnelly said. "Of course, everyone was cheering. He spoke to us for about 10 minutes and thanked us for coming out in the rain. We were just really excited to see him."

As the crowd pushed closer, some people were able to shake Obama's hand, Donnelly said.

"We were really squished in," Donnelly said, adding that while she didn't get to shake his hand and her fiancé was able to take the candidate's picture.

Obama took the stage at 10:33 and was still speaking at 11:15 a.m., the New Era's press time. He took questions from some in the crowd, including one from a woman whose son is a lieutenant in the military.

"What can you say to mothers so they do not feel theirs sons and daughters have not died in vain?" she asked.

"Is your son still serving?" he asked in response.

"Yes," the woman said.

"First of all, let me thank him for his service. We are proud of him," Obama said. He proceeded to say that their service "is never in vain," and that the problem in Iraq is not with the military, but rather with our civilian leadership of it.

The military has gotten rid of Saddam Hussein, built schools, rebuilt the energy systems there. But civilian leaders did not think about how to get out of the war and how it will make us safer, Obama said.

As president, he said he will ensure that military sacrifices are made in service of a good strategy.

Lancaster resident Mary Tribble, a former Central Market standholder and a second cousin to Obama, carried a wrinkled photograph of Obama from a family reunion five years ago. She was hoping to get his autograph.

Asked how it felt to see her relative onstage, a frontrunner for the party's nomination, she said: "It's a little weird."

On Sunday afternoon, Obama spoke to about 22,000 people on the Old Main lawn at Penn State University before traveling to Harrisburg. There, he held a town hall meeting with some 2,000 at The Forum.

Obama will travel to Allentown later today before campaigning in Wilkes-Barre and Scranton on Tuesday. The bus tour concludes Wednesday in Philadelphia.

Though he leads in delegates and the popular vote, Obama is campaigning as an underdog in Pennsylvania, which holds its primary on April 22. Statewide opinion polls show U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton holding a double-digit lead.

The two candidates have been crisscrossing the state. Clinton was holding a roundtable discussion with middle-class families in Harrisburg today. She is also holding an evening rally in Fairless Hills. On Tuesday, she is scheduled to speak to the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO in Philadelphia, and hold rallies in Wilkes-Barre and Erie. She'll hold an economic summit in Pittsburgh on Wednesday.

The primary here will decide how 158 delegates are allocated. It is the biggest single delegate prize remaining in the Democratic primaries.

Some Democrats, particularly Obama's supporters, have voiced concern that the hard-fought, drawn-out race is already hurting the party's chances to win in November.

At Penn State, Obama told the crowd not to worry.

"As this primary has gone on a little bit long, there have been people who've been voicing some frustration," Obama said. "I want everybody to understand that this has been a great contest, great for America. It's engaged and involved people like never before.

"I think it's terrific that Senator Clinton's supporters have been as passionate as my supporters have been because that makes the people invested and engaged in this process, and I am absolutely confident that when this primary season is over Democrats will be united," Obama said.

The chairman of the Democratic National Committee, Howard Dean, has urged the candidates to end the race by July 1. Clinton, however, has signaled that she is in the race through the party's late-August convention.

"I know there are some people who want to shut this down and I think they are wrong," Clinton said in an interview with The Washington Post on Saturday. "I have no intention of stopping until we finish what we started and until we see what happens in the next 10 contests and until we resolve Florida and Michigan. And if we don't resolve it, we'll resolve it at the convention — that's what credentials committees are for."

(Staff writers Janet Kelley and Cindy Stauffer contributed to this report).

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