LYNCHBURG -- In this hometown of the late evangelical conservative preacher Jerry Falwell, a crowd of about 2,000 people crammed into the E.C. Glass high school gymnasium to welcome Barrack Obama.

At his introduction the crowd stood, cheered and chanted his name for over a minute.

"It's good to be in Virginia,'' said Obama, who stood on a platform situated in the middle of the gym floor.

Obama -- who appeared earlier in Martinsville and who will stop tomorrow in Chesterfield County and in Chesapeake -- talked about how bad the economy is, not only in south central Virginia, but also all over the rest of country.

"Americans are anxious. They're worried about the present and they're worried about the future.''

Obama said that watching manufacturing plants move out of southern Virginia is worrisome. "But understand it's happening everywhere, in southern Ohio... in southern Illinois. ...''

The soon-to-be-official Democratic presidential nominee said, "It's harder to save, it's harder to retire and all this in the face or the rising costs of everything from gasoline to a college education. There are folks here who are poor and getting poorer. There's also the middle class feeling the ground slipping out from under them.''

Tony Reed, who attended the rally, said he does not think Falwell's influence will affect Lynchburg's support for Obama. "They're not that tough,'' he said of conservatives in general. "I think they're dying out.''