For the second day, Senator Obama yesterday pressed his energy agenda in a political swing state and increased his criticism of Mr. McCain, whom the Illinois senator linked to the Bush administration and Vice President Cheney. “When George Bush took office,” Mr. Obama said in Youngstown, Ohio, “he turned to Dick Cheney and he told Cheney go take care of this. And Cheney proceeded to meet with renewable energy groups once, and met with the oil companies 40 times.”

“John McCain has taken a page out of the Bush-Cheney playbook. He’s offering a plan with no significant investments in alternative energy,” Mr. Obama said.

“While Senator McCain’s plan won’t save you at the pump any time soon, I have to say this, it sure has raised him a lot of campaign dollars,” Mr. Obama said. “Senator McCain raised more than $1 million from the oil industry just last month, just last month, most of which came after he announced his plan for offshore drilling to a roomful of oil executives.”

McCAIN VISITS NUCLEAR PLANT

Senator McCain visited a nuclear power plant in Michigan yesterday, the first time a presidential candidate has toured a nuclear facility in recent memory. The Enrico Fermi Nuclear Plant outside Detroit is home to an operating power plant and another reactor that had a partial meltdown in the 1960s. It was decommissioned in 1972, while its successor continues to operate. Mr. McCain has called for the construction of 45 nuclear power plants by 2030.

GOVERNOR PREDICTS CLOSE RACE IN OHIO

Governor Strickland of Ohio said yesterday that the presidential race in his state will be “close,” and he’s urging Senator Obama to campaign in rural areas where his support has been weakest. Mr. Strickland, who helped Senator Clinton defeat Mr. Obama in Ohio’s primary last March, said he and Senator Brown offered to introduce Mr. Obama to voters in the smaller towns and farm communities in the southern parts of the state, where voters have gravitated to the Republican candidate in presidential elections.

“I think both Sherrod and I have discovered how to win Ohio,” Mr. Strickland said in an interview after Obama’s town hall meeting in Berea, a Cleveland suburb. “We feel as if there could be great benefit to his campaign by spending some time with the two of us in various parts of Ohio and perhaps getting a bus and going into rural areas of Ohio.”

POLL: OBAMA UP BY 6 POINTS

Solid margins among women, minorities, and young voters have powered Senator Obama to a 6 percentage point lead over Senator McCain in the presidential race, according to an Associated Press-Ipsos poll released yesterday. Mr. Obama is ahead of his Republican rival 47% to 41% among registered voters, the poll showed. The survey was taken after the Democratic senator had returned from a trip to Middle Eastern and European capitals, and during a week that saw the two camps clash over which one had brought race into a campaign in which an Obama victory would make him the first African-American president. Mr. McCain, the senator from Arizona, is leading by 10 points among whites and is even with Mr. Obama among men, groups with whom Republicans traditionally do well in national elections. He has a 17-point lead with white men and was running strongly among married men, rural residents and white evangelicals. Obama leads by 13 points among women, by 30 points among voters up to age 34, and by 55 points among blacks, Hispanics, and other minorities, the poll shows. He is also doing strongly with unmarried men, moderates, and city dwellers, and has a 12-point lead among those saying they definitely plan to vote.

CLINTON TO CAMPAIGN SOLO FOR OBAMA

Senator Clinton plans to campaign for Senator Obama in Nevada and Florida this month. The events are expected to be her first solo campaign appearances on Mr. Obama’s behalf since she lost the Democratic nomination contest. The Obama campaign said yesterday that Mrs. Clinton will host rallies and voter registration events this Friday in Las Vegas and again in South Florida on August 21.