POTTSVILLE, Pa. -- Republican Sen. John McCain returned to battleground Pennsylvania yesterday with a speech drawing stark distinctions between himself and Democratic Sen. Barack Obama.

"He's running to be redistributionist-in-chief; I'm running to be commander-in-chief. Sen. Obama is running to spread the wealth and I'm running to create more wealth. Sen. Obama is running to make plumbers successful; I'm running to make everybody successful," he said.

His remarks were delivered to a mostly Republican crowd but aimed at voters like Sue Keller, a registered Democrat who hasn't yet decided whom she'll vote for next Tuesday. Mrs. Keller, a 45-year-old bank manager from Schuylkill County, hoped the speech would help her decide.

"I don't want this to be a Barack-bashing. I want to hear what [McCain] is going to do for me," Mrs. Keller said before Mr. McCain arrived at the rally in the Lengel Middle School's gymnasium.

The Arizona senator brought his standard stump speech, distancing himself from President Bush, distinguishing himself from Mr. Obama and asking his supporters to rally their friends on Election Day.

"We need to win Pennsylvania. I need your help. I need you to work for the next eight days ... so we can bring real change to Washington, D.C.," he said. "We can't spend the next four years as we have spent much of the last eight, hoping for our luck to change at home and abroad. We have to act. We need a new direction and we have to fight for it."

His words inspired Pottsville banker Rick Willier to join the charge.

"He convinced me," said Mr. Willier, 51, who said he was undecided before the Pottsville rally. "He comes across very honest and very sincere. ... He's very specific in what he believes in and what he can do. Obama talks too much in generalities."

Last night, Mr. McCain offered these specifics: he wants to create jobs, invest in nuclear energy, drill for oil, cut business taxes and freeze government spending on most programs.

Mr. McCain was on comfortable turf, a conservative area that voted Republican in the last two presidential elections.

Several protesters stood outside the middle school carrying signs such as "Steel Workers for Obama." A lone Clinton holdout, Katlyn Miller of Pottsville, stood nearby with a pair of neon orange and green signs reading "We Wanted Hillary" and "Go Home, McCain."

"Obama doesn't care enough, and McCain is more of the same. I don't see why anyone would want that," said Miss Miller, an 18-year-old factory worker.

Her neighbors, like medical technician Linda Maskerines, can tell her why.

"As a mother of a deployed soldier, I want McCain making decisions. McCain is a veteran and I think he understands how policies would affect troops," said Mrs. Maskerines, 57. "If my son's life is on the line, I want him."

Jeff Buchanan, a health marketer and educator, wants McCain, too.

"A vote for Obama is a vote in the wrong direction. I don't think his policies represent what heartland America wants," he said. Mr. McCain, he said, wants to create the kind of sustainable jobs that are needed in coal towns like Pottsville.

"It says a lot that he's here. He's willing to come to talk to crowds of 4,000. He doesn't need to go to Denver and talk to 100,000. He's willing to talk to real working people," said Mr. Buchanan, 52.

Housewife Linda Minnich, 60, of Pottsville agreed.

"This is a little town, a very depressed area, and for John McCain to visit us here is something," he said. "He didn't have to come here to such a little dinky area" in the last crucial days of this election," she said.

A similar McCain rally is scheduled for this morning in Hershey, while Mr. Obama plans to stump in suburban Philadelphia.

Mr. McCain began his day spending 50 minutes meeting privately in Cleveland with his nine economic advisers, including Meg Whitman, the former chief executive of eBay; Mitt Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts who once ran a private equity investment firm; and John Taylor, a Stanford economics professor, the Chicago Tribune reported.

"With one week left in this campaign, the choice facing Americans is stark," Mr. McCain later told a friendly audience at the Renaissance Cleveland Hotel. "My economic goals and policies are very clear. One, I will protect your savings and retirement accounts and get this stock market rising again. Two, I will keep people in their homes and fix our housing market. Three, I will create millions of high-paying jobs through tax cuts that spur economic growth -- particularly for the small businesses which create 70 percent of all new jobs in this country."