Penn State mulls hiking tuition

PPL shuts down Berwick reactor for routine maintenance

<b>First Posted:</b> 10/28/2008<br><br>By BEN FELLER
Associated Press Writer
CHESTER, Pa. (AP) _ The World Series got suspended. Obama politics never  stop.


Democrat  carried on Tuesday with an outdoor rally at Widener  University, outside Philadelphia, despite a cold, steady rain that made the  temperature feel freezing.
About 9,000 people came out to hear the presidential contender. They stood in  mud.
&amp;quot;I just want all of you to know that if we see this kind of dedication on  Election Day, there is no way that we're not going to bring change to America,&amp;quot;  Obama told the shivering crowd.
The weather was so miserable that Obama's rival, Republican John McCain,  canceled a rally 50 miles north in Quakertown &amp;mdash; hardly insignificant, given the  dwindling campaign time.
Even Major League Baseball suspended the fifth game of the World Series in  Philadelphia because of the same wet conditions Monday night, a first in the  history of the baseball championship.
Gone were Obama's suit and tie. He wore jeans, sneakers and a waterproof  raincoat. Still, shunning an umbrella, he got soaked. Obama later changed  clothes before resuming his events.
McCain and Obama converged on Pennsylvania, a vote-rich state where Obama  leads but McCain remains hopeful of a turnaround. Later, Obama was heading to  Virginia, a longtime Republican state where he leads in polls.
Closing in on history, the front-running Obama has returned to broad,  uplifting themes of change in hopes of ending the campaign in the most positive  light.
The election is in one week.
Obama promised better days &amp;quot;if we're willing to reach deep down inside us,  when times are tough, when it's cold, when it's raining, when it's hard &amp;mdash; that's  when we when stand up.&amp;quot;
Gunning for the 270 electoral votes the Democrat needs to win the White  House, Obama is almost exclusively targeting tossup red states, the label for  the ones that trend Republican. Any one of them might tip him to victory.  Combined, they could give him a dominant win.
Meanwhile, he can afford to spend little time at all defending Democratic  blue states except for one &amp;mdash; Pennsylvania &amp;mdash; where McCain is pushing hard to nab  a win.
McCain and running mate Sarah Palin held a rally in Hershey, Pa., on Tuesday  before going their separate ways &amp;mdash; McCain to North Carolina, another contested  state, while Palin stays in Pennsylvania. The event they scuttled in Quakertown  was to be held at a baseball stadium.
Obama's rally was in the strategic Philadelphia suburb of Chester.
The small city is in Delaware County, a pivotal swing area of the state.  Neighborhoods here range from economically depressed to working class to ritzy.  Republicans hold an edge over Democrats in voter registration, and both  campaigns are surging to get out the vote. Chester itself is predominantly  black, but the broader county has a mostly white population.
The event was a cross-state bookend to Obama's appearance Monday in  Pittsburgh, where he pledged to cut taxes for the middle class and help factory  workers as much as company owners.
Obama was then heading to Virginia, which is offering up intense political  interest this year. Obama is vying to become the first Democrat for president to  win the state in 44 years.
The Illinois senator was staging a rally at James Madison University in  Harrisonburg, an area which has posted one of Virginia's largest gains in voter  registration this year.
At night, Obama will campaign in Norfolk, Va., a major military community.  This will be Obama's ninth trip to Virginia since he clinched the Democratic  Party's nomination in June.
McCain and Palin are campaigning aggressively in Virginia, too. The  transformation of the Washington-savvy northern Virginia region, coupled with  distaste for an unpopular president, no longer makes the commonwealth  reflexively Republican.
 
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.

Obama rallies in cold and rain near Philly