The North Shore parking lots outside Heinz Field have seen their share of exuberance. But it's hard to rein in enthusiasm when you feel like your team has a chance of winning.

That was the spirit exhibited yesterday evening as several hundred supporters of Sen. Barack Obama gathered with Steelers owner Dan Rooney and several of his former players for a political pep rally aimed at Tuesday's primary.

"We're looking for a win," said Mr. Rooney, who encouraged those in attendance to take friends to the polls with them.

Among the former Steelers who spoke were Dwight White, Robin Cole, Edmund Nelson, J.T. Thomas and Franco Harris.

Mr. Cole recalled the decision the Rooney family had when it tried to reverse decades of losing football. The team hired Chuck Noll to coach.

"When you choose the right man, you get the right results," Mr. Cole said.

The event in the Heinz Field lot was the last stop on a daylong tour that included visits to Fayette, Beaver, Washington and Westmoreland counties. Also addressing the crowd were Sen. Bob Casey and Judy O'Connor, widow of the late Mayor Bob O'Connor.

State elections officials say a record number of Pennsylvanians have registered to vote in Tuesday's primary: 8,328,123.

Well, it's a record for a primary, but it's not as high as the 2004 general election. There were some 38,000 more voters in that race.

Since January, there are 152,775 new voters in the Democratic Party and 40,195 in the Republican Party. Those figures don't include voters switching parties. In the same period, 164,026 changed their registration to Democratic and 14,887 changed to Republican.

Republican Party officials have said this reflects interest in the hotly contested Democratic presidential primary. They'll work to get people to change their registration to Republican after the primary.

Sen. Arlen Specter, speaking at a stop on the North Side yesterday, admitted that he hasn't been watching the presidential debates.

"Listen, I see those people every day," he said of the senators running for president. "I can't watch them in a debate. I was watching the baseball game."

Mr. Specter said the campaign has been constructive, "But I think that it's been overdone. As long as this is. It's been six weeks. It's been so long. I think we should [move up Pennsylvania's primary date]. I think we should have been a part of Super Tuesday. That would put us in play."

The shelves in the Harrisburg train station's Transit News are lined with everything from the standard Danielle Steele fare to highbrow classics such as Dostoyevsky's "The Idiot." Lately, though, traveling bibliophiles are likely to pass those over in favor of books by an author better known for his public speaking than his writing -- and, as luck would have it, he is expected to be passing through the train station tonight on his way to an 8:45 rally on the Capitol steps.

Mr. Obama "is, by far, the best-selling author in the history of this store," owner William J. Cologie said between customers yesterday.

Mr. Obama is the author of "Dreams from my Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance" and "The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream." Sales of the former have been in the hundreds, said Mr. Cologie, who has been ordering copies since 2004.

"I started carrying it long before he was running for president because I was impressed with him," said Mr. Cologie, a Harrisburg Democrat. "I'm not one of those who are totally smitten with him. He voted the wrong way on the energy bill, and on nuclear amendments he voted with the nuclear power industry, but all-in-all, I think he is a good candidate."