Sens. Barack Obama and Joseph R. Biden Jr. drove headlong into a post-nomination bus tour yesterday, working to distract voters from John McCain's headline-grabbing selection of running mate and that most formidable of public policy issues in Western Pennsylvania: Friday night high school football.

He dispatched Mr. McCain, who will accept the Republican nomination at the Republican National Convention next week, by tying him to President Bush: "John McCain just does not get what ordinary people here in Beaver, Pennsylvania, are going through. Here's a guy that said we've made great economic progress under George W. Bush. I don't think you've seen that progress here in Beaver," Mr. Obama told a crowd at Beaver's Irvine Park.

The Democratic team, riding a post-convention bounce in the polls, will spend the next few days working to sell its economic and energy message throughout the post-industrial Midwest. They were to overnight in Youngstown and were scheduled for stops in Cleveland and Dublin, Ohio today.

Last night, Mr. Obama struck familiar Democratic economic themes: promising to expand health care, support unions, increase funding for education and wean the nation from energy dependence on oil.

On foreign policy, Mr. Obama reiterated his pledge to end the war in Iraq, but added a note of militancy: "As president, I'm going to end this war in Iraq," he said. "I am going to go after those who actually killed 3,000 Americans -- in Afghanistan, in the hills between Afghanistan and Pakistan. We need a president who is going to go after al-Qaida and not just talk tough."

The bulk of the address, though, was focused on economics -- an issue that has run deep for two generations in Western Pennsylvania, where the collapse of the steelmaking industry and the very idea of overseas manufacturing by American firms remain a sore point.

"You know we can't keep on seeing our jobs shipped overseas," Mr. Obama told the crowd.

The Beaver rally, held in a county that gave the world Tony Dorsett, Mike Ditka and Joe Namath, marked the opening themes in what is likely to be a frenetic 67-days of electioneering. The Democrats toured a biodiesel plant near Monaca and swung by a local dairy restaurant for ice cream before descending on the county seat for the twilight rally.

The rally coincided with the opening night of high school football in this sports-mad region. Campaign organizers arranged what was described as an "intimate" setting in Irvine Park, with the candidates speaking from the park's flag-bedecked central gazebo from which a barbershop quartet opened the evening with a four-part Star Spangled Banner.

Audience members sat in chairs with a select handful at picnic tables planted near the platform. A second crowd of several thousand gathered at the fringes of the barricaded block hoping for a glimpse.

"They want to show he can play in smaller venues, too; that he can connect with people in smaller settings," said U.S. Rep. Jason Altmire, whose district includes Beaver.

Nonetheless, Mr. Altmire, who is facing a reelection challenge from former U.S. Rep. Melissa Hart, noted that a few towns away, in New Brighton, the traditional New Brighton-Beaver gridiron rivalry was set to rev up and if the Obama-Biden team was looking for a crowd, they might consider stopping by.

"If I were them, I'd try to stop by a game on the way out. That's what I'm going to do," Mr. Altmire said.

The competition with football was openly acknowledged by Tony Amadio, the chairman of the board of county commissioners, who welcomed the crowd. "I realize that most people on Friday nights are sitting and watching a football game. I applaud you for being here; I thank you for coming," he said.

The campaign's choice of Beaver as a first-day stop signified the crucial nature of Pennsylvania's 21 electoral votes and how a once reliable Democratic stronghold has now come into play.

Four years ago, Democrat John F. Kerry won the state, but only squeaked by in Beaver County with 51 percent of the vote and lost once intractably Democratic counties such as Cambria and Greene. The McCain camp, sensing that reconfiguration, planned a rally for Washington County in the state's southwest corner for this afternoon.

That is not to say Mr. Obama couldn't sell out the estimated 1,500 tickets available for last night's rally. One of them even went to a football fanatic.

"High school football in Western Pennsylvania -- I'm sure Barack and Joe Biden have no idea what it's like," said Jim Wetzel, who drove in from Butler where, three decades ago, he helped coach the Moniteau High School team.

Still, Mr. Wetzel, who keeps his television tuned to MSNBC, CNN and ESPN, cancelled plans to attend a high school game when a friend called with tickets to the rally.

"We're going to the Pitt game tomorrow," he said.

Earlier in the day, Mr. Obama and Mr. Biden, accompanied by their wives, arrived by bus at the Pennsylvania Bio Diesel plant near Monaca, where they toured a facility that yearly transforms tons of poultry fat into several million gallons of biodiesel fuel.

Plant vice president P.J. Copple said the facility was built when another of his company's businesses, a grinding operation, needed a supply of glycerin, which is another of the products synthesized along with the biodiesel.

After a quick tour, Mr. Obama praised the plant as well as Gov. Ed Rendell, a former supporter of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton who arranged yesterday's tour on behalf of the nominee.

"It's part of, I think, the revitalization of this section of Pennsylvania and could be duplicated all across the country," Mr. Obama told reporters at the plant.

Mr. Biden, Delaware's senior senator, quickly noted that most of the chicken fat used at the plant comes from poultry operations in Delaware, and called the plant "a double hit: this creates jobs in my state, it creates jobs in this state."

Responding to a reporter's question, Mr. Obama moved his campaign away from a comment by an aide who said the selection of Ms. Palin, which the aid said put "the former mayor of a town of 9,000 with zero foreign policy experience a heartbeat away from the presidency."

Mr. Obama, whose own joint statement with Mr. Biden characterized the Palin selection as historic and a sign of progress for women in politics, dismissed the aide's remarks.

"Campaigns start getting these hair triggers and the statement that Joe and I put out reflects our sentiments," Mr. Obama said.

Describing Ms. Palin as "a compelling person, obviously a terrific personal story," Mr. Obama nonetheless said the presence of Mr. McCain at the top of the ticket overrides his running mate's positives.

"I'm sure that she will help make the case for the Republicans. Unfortunately the case is more of the same," Mr. Obama said. "So, ultimately John McCain's at the top of the ticket ... I think he wants to take the country in the wrong direction. I'm assuming Gov. Palin agrees with him and his policies."