Photos by Jared Soares | The Roanoke Times

Allie Cox and Will Cox of Lynchburg listen to candidate Barack Obama speak in Lynchburg on Wednesday. Several state Democratic leaders were also in attendance.

Barack Obama said he would create jobs in alternative energy fields and end tax breaks for corporations that move jobs overseas.

People wait in line to hear Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama speak at E.C. Glass High School in Lynchburg.

Sen. Jim Webb introduced Obama in Lynchburg on Wednesday, underscoring the state's importance in the election. "Virginia may be the key to deciding the future of America," he said.

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Online Editor's note: This story mistakenly reported Obama's campaign stop in Martinsville as having taken place Tuesday. This online version has been corrected to fix the error.

MARTINSVILLE -- Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama began a two-day Virginia campaign swing Wednesday in a community with the state's highest unemployment rate, telling a Martinsville audience that he will take aggressive steps to improve the plight of economically-distressed communities that are reeling from plant closings and layoffs.

"I'm not saying that every job is going to come back to Martinsville just because I'm elected president," Obama said in a town hall-style meeting at Patrick Henry Community College's Virginia Motorsports Technology Center. "I'm not saying that suddenly all of the schools are going to be fixed. But what I can do is I can say that I'm going to wake up every day thinking about you and thinking about how to make your life a little bit better."

More than 300 people invited by Obama's campaign filled folding chairs in the uncomfortably warm building to hear Obama, who hopes to become the first Democratic presidential candidate in 44 years to carry Virginia. Obama shared the spotlight with former governor and U.S. Senate candidate Mark Warner, and spoke to an audience that was surrounded by race cars propped on lifts.

Obama's campaign bus later rolled to Lynchburg, where he joined Sen. Jim Webb for a public event at E.C. Glass High School that drew some 2,000 people, including Roanoke Mayor David Bowers, Del. Onzlee Ware and Virginia Sen. John Edwards. Congressional candidates Tom Perriello and Sam Rasoul also attended.

Obama will join Gov. Tim Kaine, a possible vice presidential running mate, for events today in Chester and Chesapeake.

Obama's campaign had billed the Martinsville event as a forum to discuss trade policies that have affected communities with manufacturing-based economies. But Obama largely stuck to broader economic themes, and said he has a more effective plan than Republican John McCain to jump-start the economy. And he said Martinsville's ailing economy, which had relied heavily on textile and furniture manufacturing, is similar to those of struggling communities in the industrial Midwest.

"People feel like the American dream is slipping away," he said. "We can't keep going in the same direction."

Obama said he would end tax breaks for corporations that move jobs overseas; create incentives for those that foster jobs in the U.S.; add jobs in alternative energy industries; and provide $1,000 per-family tax credits to cushion the impact of rising food and energy costs. In front of an audience that included union members, Obama also said he supports proposed legislation that would allow employees to organize unions without being required to hold a secret ballot election.

Obama also questioned why Iraq is being allowed to shelter billions in oil revenues while the U.S. foots the bill for rebuilding efforts.

"We should be using some of that money to rebuild Virginia, laying roads, building broadband lines and putting people back to work," he said.

Obama argued that McCain will continue the economic and trade policies of President Bush, and used a rhetorical question to frame the contrast between the candidates.

"How many of you are better off now than when George Bush took office?" Obama said. "Go ahead, raise your hands."

Warner's focus on economic conditions in rural areas was cited by Obama's campaign last week when Warner was chosen to deliver the keynote speech at the Democratic National Convention. Warner said Martinsville was an appropriate stop for Obama.

"In a lot of ways, this is ground zero for 'can we get the information age right?' " Warner said.

Warner called Obama "a man of deep faith -- faith in God, faith in country and faith in recognizing that every community has got to get a fair shot."

In Lynchburg, Webb revisited the theme of economic inequality, which he pushed heavily during his 2006 campaign.

He said that Virginia has the highest disparity from top to bottom of any state and bemoaned job losses in Southside and central Virginia's manufacturing sector.

But he also underscored the importance of those regions in Democrats' efforts to flip the state for Obama.

"Virginia may be the key to deciding the future of America," Webb said to a roar of applause and stomps. "This part of Virginia may well hold the key to the election here in Virginia."

Obama spoke for just over an hour, repeating many of the themes he'd addressed in Martinsville for the larger Lynchburg audience. He also spoke about attacks in recent weeks, saying that Republicans had circulated ads and rumors "denying my faith as a Christian, or denying my patriotism as an American."

"The folks in charge haven't been very good at governing, but they have been very good at campaigning," Obama said. "They will run negative ad after negative ad, attack after attack, with the goal of making you lose focus on the issues and their failures and try to focus on me and to make me out to be a risky, scary guy.

"I have to say I don't find myself particularly scary, or particularly risky."

McCain's campaign fired back at Obama after the Martinsville event, enlisting an economic adviser and Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling to blast Obama's economic plans in a conference call.

They cast Obama as a captive of Democrats who would advocate tax increases and greater government spending, and argued that he could not get the economy out of its rut.

Referring to communities such as Martinsville, McCain adviser Doug Holtz-Eakin said McCain has acknowledged that "globalization doesn't automatically help everybody."

But Holtz-Eakin said McCain would take steps such as improving transition assistance for displaced workers and containing rising health care costs, which Holtz-Eakin cited as "the reason that people are not getting a raise."

Theresa Foster, a Martinsville resident and former college administrator, bemoaned the fact that young people don't return to communities like hers after getting college degrees. Obama cited the community college's motorsports program as an example of the kind of investments that can help young workers develop skills tied to local economies.

"You can't just have one sector that's doing well and have the state thrive over the long term," Obama said.