STATE COLLEGE -- Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton yesterday unleashed a steady barrage of attacks on Sen. Barack Obama, playing up her experience before a group that usually lines up behind her opponent -- students.

"When the cameras disappear and the lights are turned off you are electing a president to solve problems, not to give speeches," she told a rowdy gathering of about 2,500 at Penn State University's Rec Hall.

It was a day of contrasts for Mrs. Clinton. She started off in Bethlehem and then traveled to Johnstown, both homes to the kinds of white, working class voters who have supported her in primary elections across the country.

She ended the day here, in Obama territory, promising younger people that a second Clinton administration would make college more affordable and create millions of jobs in "green collar" energy industries.

Last month, as many as 20,000 Obama supporters packed the lawn in front of the university's Old Main to see him and hear him speak.

Although he has consistently trailed Mrs. Clinton in statewide polls, Mr. Obama has a solid lead with voters under the age of 35 -- 61 percent to 35 percent, according to a survey done for the Post-Gazette and two other news organizations by Mason-Dixon Polling & Research

"I don't understand it," said Calvin Healy, 19, a sophomore from Lansdale, Montgomery County. "Their stances on the issues are so similar, except she's got the experience and he doesn't."

Mrs. Clinton repeatedly emphasized that argument yesterday.

She also attacked Mr. Obama for saying Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, would be a "better" chief executive than President Bush.

"Either Democrat would be better than John McCain," he said. "And all three of us would be better than George Bush."

That drew a rebuke from Mrs. Clinton, who said, "We need a nominee who will take on John McCain, not cheer on John McCain."

"We don't need to continue in any way the policies of this administration," she said. "They have failed. They need to be in the dustbin of history."

She also faulted Mr. Obama for backing a health care plan that doesn't mandate that all Americans have insurance. She called a universal program a "defining" issue for Democrats.

The crowd cheered wildly when Mrs. Clinton laid out her plan for widening access to higher education, including a doubling of the tax credit for college, debt forgiveness for students who take jobs in public service, and the simplification of the Free Application for Student Aid form.

"It is such a cruel hoax -- they spend all this time filling it out and get to the end and are told 'Sorry. We're not going to give you any money.'"

Mrs. Clinton reminded the crowd that her father, Hugh Rodham, attended Penn State on a football scholarship at a time when players still wore leather helmets.

Simran Grover, 20, a finance major from the Philadelphia suburbs, said many of her friends were backing Mr. Obama. She called it a "bandwagon" effect. "They don't necessarily know his viewpoints on a lot of issues," she said.

She called herself a staunch Democrat, but said she might not vote for Mr. Obama in November if he's the party's nominee.

That was a common sentiment in Johnstown, which likely will be Hillary Country on Tuesday. Many of her backers there are still smarting over Mr. Obama's comments at a California fundraiser that small-town Pennsylvanians are "bitter" over their economic struggles.

"I really do feel he talked down to blue-collar workers," said Pam O'Kinsky, 53, of Somerset, whose father worked in a Johnstown steel mill. "I don't like Obama."

Hillary, she said, "is a strong woman."

She and her daughter both said they would support Mr. McCain over Mr. Obama in the fall election if Mrs. Clinton can't catch up in the Democratic delegate race.

It could be an ominous development for the Democrats, who need party unity if they hope to retake the White House. The campaigns' recent ugly tone in Pennsylvania may be taking a toll, even in places like solidly Democratic Johnstown.

"They're two evils, so I wouldn't even make a decision," Kelly Swanson, 45, said of Mr. Obama and Mr. McCain, as she patted her hands on a large "Hillary" sticker on her forearm.

Her husband, a furnace operator at North American Hoganas and member of the United Steelworkers union, said he would support either Democratic candidate.

"Nobody is going to get in there and be perfect," he said.

They both lamented Johnstown's economic ills in recent decades. Mrs. Swanson said as many as half of her relatives don't have health insurance. Her son, tired of working at a local Taco Bell, moved to North Carolina to find a better job, she said.

"We can't get lower than we are now," she said.

In Johnstown, Mrs. Clinton ran over a list of Mr. McCain's policies to display his strong links to the current president, criticizing the Arizona senator's stance on the Iraq war and his more hands-off approach to the foreclosure crisis.

"Sen. McCain thinks it's okay to keep our troops in Iraq for the next hundred years. Is that better than Bush?"

"No!" the crowd shouted.