Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama fought back Thursday against Republican attacks during a rally under the shade of oak trees in Lancaster's Buchanan Park.

As a crowd estimated at 15,000 and a horde of local, state and national media watched from the parched lawn of the city park, Obama jabbed at Republicans and their nominees — presidential candidate John McCain and his running mate, Sarah Palin — for inaccurately representing him and his proposals.

Video of Sen. Barack Obama's Lancaster address

Photographs from Sen. Barack Obama's Lancaster address

"What else do you expect them to do?" said Obama, wearing an open-collared, powder-blue shirt and standing at a podium on a sweltering afternoon. "That's what they do every four years. I've been called worse on the basketball court, and I don't spend a lot of time worrying about it."

Thursday marked the first time Obama had a chance to respond to Palin's speech at the GOP convention, which concluded Thursday in St. Paul, Minn. Her speech was lauded by many conservative pundits who viewed it as an appropriate attack on the Illinois senator's platform and biography.

Obama's rally was held in a shady nook of the park, which is adjacent to the campus of Franklin & Marshall College. About 100 campaign volunteers and supporters sat at picnic tables and blankets directly in front of the candidate while most of the huge crowd stood in the sun to Obama's left.

Obama, the first African-American nominated for president by either major political party, spent much of his speech trying to paint Republicans as out of touch with the middle class and pandering to wealthy corporations.

"The question we have to ask ourselves is: What America are they living in?" Obama said. "I don't think John McCain is a bad man. I just think he doesn't get it, and I don't think the Republican Party gets it. If they got it, then they wouldn't propose to continue the same George Bush economic policies that got us into this mess in the first place."

Meanwhile, in Minnesota, McCain delivered his speech accepting the GOP nomination for president.

"And let me offer an advance warning to the old, big-spending, do-nothing, me-first, country-second Washington crowd: Change is coming," McCain said.

In Lancaster, Obama was introduced by U.S. Sen. Bob Casey Jr., a Pennsylvania Democrat, and Chris Wright, a 36-year-old Marietta Republican who is supporting Obama and was asked by the campaign Wednesday night to introduce the candidate.

"It was a little surreal, definitely," Wright said. He said he believes Republicans have lost their way in regard to fiscal and personal responsibility, which led him to support the Democrat.

Obama spent much of the speech proposing policy initiatives like tax cuts for 95 percent of families, financial incentives for college graduates to entice them into taking civil-service jobs, government-sponsored health care at least as good as that provided to members of Congress and investment in alternative-energy sources.

"You are going to rise up and say enough is enough, the time for change has come," he said. "We are going to create the kind of economy that works for all Americans and the kind of foreign policy that restores our respect across the world."

Prior to the event, the state GOP held a conference call in which U.S. Rep. Joe Pitts, a Chester County Republican who represents Lancaster County, slammed Obama for opposing McCain's plan to open U.S.-controlled land and sea for oil drilling.

"We can't even get a vote in the Congress (on the issue), and our friend Barack Obama hasn't said hardly a peep and will not oppose the Democratic leaders in Congress," Pitts said.

Lancaster city Mayor Rick Gray, speaking in Buchanan Park before Obama's arrival, said Republicans in Minnesota keep talking about changing the Washington, D.C., culture.

"We've had a Republican president for eight years," Gray said. "We've had a Republican Senate for five of the last eight years. We've had a Republican House for six of the last eight years. They're going to bash the Washington establishment?

"Folks, they are the Republican establishment."

While the economy is the top issue on the minds of voters, according to several polls, and Obama spent much of the rally focused on the economy, he also talked about Iraq. Obama said the recent surge in U.S. troops has reduced violence in the war-torn country, which has been under U.S. occupation since 2003.

Obama, however, criticized the administration for not following through on plans to hand power and protection of Iraq over to the Iraqi government and for continuing to spend $10 billion a month there.

"There's never been a nation on Earth who saw its economy decline and saw its military prospects improve," Obama said.

E-mail: dpidgeon@lnpnews.com