NORTH ADAMS - Energy and health issues should be the first priorities of the next president, said U.S. Sen. John Kerry on Monday.

"Those are the two most important things that will produce the most jobs and produce the most benefit to companies and individuals," said the former presidential candidate in an interview. "That's what I would strongly urge him to do."

It's no secret that Kerry presumes the next president will be his colleague Barack Obama, whom he referred to more than once as "President Obama" during his visit to the city on Monday.

The state's junior senator was in North Adams as part of the "Kerry on Your Corner" listening tours he's been making around the state as he runs for a sixth term in the U.S. Senate. But Kerry, who will face Gloucester attorney Edward O'Reilly in a Democratic primary next month, was also here to rally the troops for Obama and predicted that a lot could change next year.

First, he eagerly shook hands with passers-by, listened to their complaints and kudoes, ducked into the soon-to-be-renovated historic Mohawk Theater, and spoke with some of the artists filling up storefronts along Main Street.

He referred to the $4 billion in the recently passed housing bill that would go to local governments to help them buy foreclosed and abandoned properties, money "that goes directly to the mayor help the mayor be able develop the downtown." It was money that "President Obama believes in" as a way to invest in communities, Kerry said.

But it was energy and health care that were the main topics, and the significance of those two costly factors on small business were reaffirmed locally after meeting with Osmin Alvarez, owner of Boxcar Media LLC, one of several stops the Democrat made along Main Street with Mayor John Barrett.

The successful, home-grown Internet company (and parent company of iBerkshires.com) was suggested for the senator to visit as representative of the area's creative economy. "This is what the creative economy is about and a lot of positive things are happening because of this," said the mayor.

Over the past decade or so, the firm has grown to 40 employees and, in addition to iBerkshires, operates niche social networking sites like Sawxheads.com, BerkshireJobs.com and especially RacingJunk.com, an international classified site for motor-sport enthusiasts with more than 300,000 members.

"What we do here is try to incubate businesses, and to try to run with technology that we use in one business to see if we can use it in another," Alvarez told Kerry. "We've taken those businesses and spun them off."

It was the type of business that keeps young people in the area, said Barrett, "give them good businesses, give them good opportunities and a quality of life that's second to none."

Alvarez said that since less than 1 percent of the company's revenues were from Massachusetts, it was actually importing profits into the state. But energy and insurance costs are affecting the company's bottom line and its ability to hire and retain workers, as well as its racing-car customers.

Health benefits are matter of work-force development, he said, and bigger companies can afford to offer more. Workers who have to drive longer distances are being affected by gas prices; they need raises to cover driving costs and rising home heating bills.

"Our racers have felt the pinch," said Alvarez, and while the business still has room to grow, "I think our racers will feel the effect in Year 2 far worse than in Year 1. In Year 1, you can juggle a lot of things but Year 2, you might not have that flexibility."

Kerry pointed to a health care bill he filed last year in an effort to help small businesses afford to cover their employees; Obama has proposed a 50 percent tax credit, reinsurance pool for catastrophic illnesses and greater electronic efficiencies (picking up elements of Kerry's health plan from 2004).

"We're all very hopeful that next year there will be health-care reform. We're spending so much more than other countries per patient and we're getting less good results," he said, adding Massachusetts' landmark health care reform is being looked at as an example. "We have great health care but we don't have the best system in the world."

As for energy, Kerry said it was time the oil companies were brought to heel.

"Last quarter, Exxon reported almost $12 billion in profit, which is a larger profit that any American company in history has ever reported," he said. "The idea that we couldn't take a component of that to buffer the American economy is simply unexceptable."

He later scoffed at the idea that offshore drilling would alleviate the current energy crisis, calling it a "phony argument" because millions of acres could already be drilled.

"Our future is not in drilling more of that black stuff ... the future is moving the world to something other than fossil fuels," Kerry told a gathering of Democrats at Taylor's Fine Dining.

He predicted that "three or four Google equivalents" in energy production would happen in the coming years.

More immediately, he said, additional funding was likely for LIHEAP (the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program) for families struggling to stay warm this winter. The program was cut by nearly a quarter in President Bush's fiscal 2009 budget; last week, Senate Republicans blocked a vote on more funding.

"The administration has really been insensitive on this," said Kerry. "I think now, given what's happening with the rising price of fuel, we're building a stronger coalition [to change that]."

The senator spoke to about 60 Democrats at Taylor's after being introduced by the mayor and state Rep. Daniel E. Bosley of North Adams, before leaving for a talk with a group at Williams College and was expected to attend Obama's birthday fundraiser in Boston in the evening.

The Barrett said the Kerry has been very supportive of the city and its programs. He's always kept us on his radar."