CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. - As working-class voters in West Virginia largely rejected him, Democratic presidential frontrunner Barack Obama flew to this Republican stronghold in a key swing state to woo a similar audience Tuesday.

His aim: To show the nation, and fellow Democrats, that he's going to keep pursuing such voters as part of his quest to capture the White House in the fall.

His pitch: Despite his education and political connections, he also hails from a blue-collar background and shares the middle-class' economic hopes and fears, unlike presumptive Republican nominee John McCain.

He focused his criticism on McCain and President Bush, trying to sound like a man who already had bested rival Sen. Hillary Clinton in the race for the Democratic nomination.

"You'll see that a vote for John McCain is a vote for George Bush's third term," Obama said before about 200 people at Thorngate Ltd., a clothing manufacturing plant that is one of the few remaining factories in Cape Girardeau.

"Four more years of George Bush's tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans … Four more years of a health care plan that works for the healthy and the wealthy while tens of millions go without care …

"Four more years of a war that has cost us thousands of lives and a trillion dollars without making us safer, while we run up a mountain of debt that is mortgaging our children's future."

Obama spoke for about an hour, including a question-and-answer session, in remarks that were long on substance and short on the sizzle for which he is often known.

Tuesday's town-hall format and business backdrop was similar to those used by Bush and McCain for their most recent stops in Missouri. Obama's audience, which included Democratic activists from around the region, was seated on chairs wedged between cloth-cutting tables.

Thorngate was chosen for Tuesday's stop, in part, because its 360 employees are union members. The audience cheered when Obama pointed out that he was wearing a union-made suit manufactured in the United States.

The suit's lapel sported an American flag pin, largely absent from Obama's wardrobe until Monday and Tuesday. Asked about the pin, he told an Associated Press reporter: "Sometimes I wear it, sometimes I don't."

Obama made no mention of Clinton until a member of the audience asked if he might consider her as a running mate. Obama said such talk was premature.

Besides outlining his proposals, Obama also sought to link them together by arguing that the war in Iraq is to blame for most of the nation's problems.

When a woman recounted her frustration over the lack of American-made products in stores, Obama contended that the Bush administration is reluctant to challenge trade issues with China, which now manufactures many of those products because the United States is borrowing billions from China to finance the war in Iraq.

Tony Heckemeyer, a retired judge from nearby Sikeston and a Democrat, praised Obama's focus on specifics. "I think he can be a contender here if people can look past the individual and listen to his issues," Heckemeyer said.

When asked to explain, Heckemeyer said bluntly: "Race will be an issue down here."

Obama's biracial background could work against him, said several audience members. Others in the generally supportive crowd said he was effectively diffusing the race issue.

Brenda Woemmel, Cape Girardeau County Democratic chairwoman, said, "The mere fact that he came here, to (conservative talk radio host) Rush Limbaugh's hometown says: 'I'm not surrendering any territory, any voter or assuming that I don't have a chance.' "

Janice Williams, a worker at Thorngate for 13 years, said simply, "I want a change in the White House."

But even Obama's strongest Missouri supporters, including U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., who accompanied him, acknowledged that the majority of rural Missouri voters are likely to prefer McCain.

For the moment, that's the case for Carol Littge, 45, who owns and operates a bar, "Pockets," across the street from the factory.

Littge, a self-described conservative, said she agrees with McCain on the need to continue the war in Iraq until the United States achieves victory.

But she's open to listening to other candidates, including Obama. She said the Illinois senator's race is likely less of a problem than the erroneous notion that he's a Muslim, an allegation she keeps hearing.

In an interview earlier Tuesday, Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder, a native of Cape Girardeau, said Obama's politics were out of touch with the area. He called Obama "the hardest-left candidate ever nominated for president" and one who won't win in southeast Missouri.

Local political history underscores the challenge any Democratic presidential candidate faces in the region.

In the Feb. 5 presidential primary, almost 60 percent of Cape Girardeau County voters cast ballots in the GOP primary, even though most of the press attention was on Obama and Clinton.

And among those county Democrats who cast ballots, less than 40 percent supported Obama. That percentage is almost identical to the blue-collar backing Obama attracted in other primaries in swing states like Ohio and Pennsylvania. His percentage was slightly higher last week in Indiana.

But Cape Girardeau also has a history of attracting big political names. Bush used it in 1999 to kick off his presidential campaign in Missouri; in 1996, then-President Bill Clinton launched his re-election bid in a Cape Girardeau park.

Obama's stop in Cape Girardeau was the first of many that he plans to make over the next two weeks to blue-collar communities in swing states across the country.

He pledged that rural Missouri voters haven't seen the last of him. "I will be back because we will be competing in Missouri," Obama said to cheers.

Jo Mannies can be reached at jmannies@post-dispatch.com.