More than 1,000 people turned out at each place to cheer the senator.

By TOM TROY

More than 1,000 people turned out at each place to cheer the senator.

ELYRIA, Ohio — Hillary Clinton made her first return trip to Ohio yesterday since the primary season, this time to campaign for the man who beat her out for the Democratic Party’s nomination, Barack Obama.

The New York senator and former first lady urged wildly cheering crowds of more than 1,000 at Lorain County Community College and 1,650 at Ellet High School in Akron to support Obama in the Nov. 4 election.

“Barack and I may have started out on two separate paths, but we are on one pathway now, and with your help, this journey will lead straight to the White House,” Clinton said.

“I want to rephrase slightly something I said at the Denver convention. If you look at everything that is going on in the world, and what’s at stake in this election, no way, no how, no McCain, and no Palin,” Clinton said, referring to Republican nominee John McCain and his running mate, Sarah Palin.

Clinton said creating and keeping good jobs are the key issues in the campaign, and said the Republican ticket promised only “more of the same.”

“I’ve heard a lot of people talking about this election and I’ve heard them asking each other, ‘Who are you for?’ But I respectfully suggest that is the wrong question. The right question is, ‘Who is for you?’” Clinton said. “There is only one answer: ‘It’s Barack Obama and [running mate] Joe Biden.’”

Clinton won the Ohio Democratic primary March 4, temporarily boosting her hopes of wresting the momentum from Obama by showing her appeal among white and blue-collar voters in the heartland. She conceded the nomination to him in June and endorsed him in a widely watched moment at the Democratic National Convention in Denver last month.

Since the Democratic National Convention ended Aug. 28, Clinton had campaigned only in Florida before yesterday’s visit to Ohio, a battleground state.

In her speech in Elyria, Clinton made only brief mentions of Alaska Gov. Palin, whose presence on the Republican ticket has breathed new life into the McCain campaign.

Ohio’s 20 electoral votes are up for grabs in the contest between McCain and Obama, and could prove to be decisive as each tries to amass the 270 electoral votes needed for victory.

The loud cheers and Obama signs in both halls signified that most agreed with her endorsement of Obama. Some were undecided.

Mary Jo Alexander of Cuyahoga Falls said she wished Clinton were the nominee.

“We’d have world peace. She’d end this ... war. And we’d have a good economy, too,” Alexander said. “I don’t know. I’m definitely not going to vote Republican.”

Alexander’s sister, Patricia Sarver, 64, of Akron, said she’ll vote for Obama because Clinton has asked her.