Sen. Barack Obama was in Pittsburgh today, raising money during a quick lunchtime visit to the Rivers Club on Grant Street.

James Burn, the county Democratic chairman, estimated that 200 to 250 people attended the event. The ticket price was $500 a head. Partisans who coughed up the Federal Election Commission maximum of $2,300 got to attend a smaller reception with the Democratic presidential hopeful

Mr. Obama had no other public events and talked to reporters only briefly. Votes, after all, weren't the immediate goal of the visit; money was, as the candidates crisscross the country vying for the bragging rights that will go to those able to report the richest campaign coffers by the end of the current FEC reporting period on June 30.

"I'm thrilled to be back in Pittsburgh,'' the senator said as he swept into the reception. "The last time I was here I was campaigning for Bob Casey, and that worked out pretty well. Hopefully my campaign will work out too.''

Mr. Obama said that Pennsylvania's issues in the presidential campaign, "are similar to my home state'' of Illinois.

"People are concerned about job loss, manufacturing loss, a health care system that's broken.

"People are concerned about rebuilding our education system to compete internationally, and an overarching concern about the war. My hope is that we can make some progress legislatively over the next year, but I think that we're going to need a new president who has a vision of bringing Republicans and Democrats together to focus on the kinds of changes that are needed.''

More details in tomorrow's Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.