READING, Pa. -- With the Democratic presidential showdown just two days away, Sen. Barack Obama spent yesterday building up enthusiasm for his campaign in parts of Eastern Pennsylvania where he hadn't been expected to run strongly.

While recent polls show his opponent, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, clinging to a slight lead in Pennsylvania and substantial leads outside the Philadelphia area, Mr. Obama wasn't conceding anything during a pep rally at the Reading High School gymnasium that lasted more than an hour.

He later took his campaign to Scranton, the city where Mrs. Clinton spent summers during her childhood.

For tomorrow's primary, Mr. Obama painted himself as the "candidate of change and the candidate of hope," someone who, unlike Mrs. Clinton and presumptive Republican candidate Sen. John McCain, wasn't part of the Washington, D.C. political establishment.

"It's time to tell the Washington lobbyists and the special interests that their days of setting the agenda are over," Mr. Obama said as the crowd of 2,600 supporters cheered loudly and stomped their feet.

"The American people are saying they're ready for change, for something new" in Washington, he said.

Mr. Obama admitted that Mrs. Clinton "is smart, hard-working and tenacious," but he claimed she'd have a hard time saying no to special interests, such as the oil companies and drug companies, "who drive the politics in Washington."

Despite what a new TV ad by Mrs. Clinton claims, Mr. Obama insisted, "I have taken no money from political action committees or lobbyists. What I have taken is $25, or $50, or $75 from people like you."

More cheers and wild applause.

Mrs. Clinton's ad says, "In the last 10 years Barack Obama has taken almost $2 million from lobbyists, corporations and PACs. The head of his New Hampshire campaign is a drug company lobbyist, in Indiana an energy lobbyist, a casino lobbyist in Nevada."

If anything, Obama upped the ante with a rebuttal ad, also airing widely across the state. It says he "doesn't take money from special interest PACs or Washington lobbyists -- not one dime." Mrs. Clinton does, it added, and accused her of "eleventh-hour smears paid for by lobbyist money."

In Reading, he told the crowd, "You have a real choice on Tuesday. We have to change the tone of politics in Washington. If you are cynical about the possibility of change, if you think the fat cats and the lobbyists are always going to run the show, if you think she can play the game better than I can," then vote for her, he said.

"But I am not running [for president] just to play the game -- I am running to put an end to the game-playing," he said.

He also took some shots at Mr. McCain. What the GOP candidate is offering the American people, Mr. Obama claimed, "is a third term of George Bush."

Loud boos from the crowd.

"This war hasn't made us safer," Mr. Obama asserted, adding that Mr. McCain "talks about keeping our troops there for 100 years. He says we've made great progress with the Bush economic plan. Tell that to the many people in Pennsylvania who've lost their jobs. We can't afford four more years of Bush economics."If elected in November, Mr. Obama said he would:

• Take away tax breaks "from companies that ship jobs overseas."

• Increase federal funds for building roads, bridges and rail lines, as well as stressing mass transit so people don't have to drive cars to get to work.

• Insist that Detroit build cars that get more miles to the gallon.

• Increase federal funds to alternative fuels such as wind power, solar power and biodiesel fuels, to lessen the oil nations' hold over America.

• Give tax credits up to $4,000 for parents with children in college.

• Expand programs that forgive college student loans if they agree to work in national or overseas service programs such as the Peace Corps or VISTA;

• Provide more federal funds for early childhood education.

• Insist that young men do more to help raise and provide for the children they father.

• Push for tax cuts for middle-income people making $75,000 or less, rather than "tax cuts for the rich that President Bush wants."

If people ask how he'd pay for these investments, he said he'd stop spending "$10 billion a month" on the war in Iraq.

"He has a personality that brings people together," said Darla James of Philadelphia as she waited outside before the event.

Liz Durham, a 30-year-old Reading businesswoman, said she's never voted before because "I always feel I'm being lied to by politicians. But Barack has inspired me to vote. He makes me feel like there is hope."

Nyla McFadden, back from North Carolina for a visit to her hometown, said Mr. Obama has "personality, presence and command. When he's standing on stage he sounds confident and sure of himself."

Mr. Obama will campaign in McKeesport this afternoon and the University of Pittsburgh tonight.