MORGANTOWN -- Despite findings that Hillary Clinton has less support among young people than Barack Obama, West Virginia University students came out in droves today to support the Democrat vying to be the nation's first female president.
MORGANTOWN -- Despite findings that Hillary Clinton has less support among young people than Barack Obama, West Virginia University students came out in droves Thursday to support the Democrat vying to be the nation's first female president.
And her husband spent an hour trying to persuade them she is the "change-maker" who deserves their vote, the person who will make critical decisions to reshape the nation within her first few years in office.
"There is a huge difference between good intentions and real changes in your life," Bill Clinton told more than 1,000 people - most of them students taking time out from finals week - who had waited for hours in a chilly morning rain for his nearly hour-long speech on historic Woodburn Circle.
Former President Bill Clinton shakes hands with the crowd of several thousands who gathered at Woodburn Circle on the campus of West Virginia University Thursday.
"Everything I know about the presidency, and its possibilities as well as its difficulties ... . tells me that we have profoundly significant decisions that have to be made by the next president within the first year or so of taking office and we have got to get this show on the road," the former president said.
"She's the best qualified person I've ever had a chance to support," he said. "I would be here for Hillary even if we'd never married because she's the best change-maker I've ever seen."
In a speech that was heavier on substance than style, Clinton laid out dozens of reasons young people should help elect his wife, from promises of universal health care and a meaningful job-creation plan to her ideas for cutting gasoline prices and fighting global warming.
"I don't believe in talking down to people or trying to inflame them," he told the crowd. "I know that this is too big to be decided on little things."
But Clinton drew the loudest, most sustained applause when outlining his wife's plans to make college more affordable and prevent students from dropping out under financial pressure.
"She knows that every young American should be able to go to college, stay there and finish, and go as far as you can," he said, explaining her plan to raise Pell grants, more than double tuition tax credits and crack down the abuses of private student loan companies charging outrageous interest rates.
Some students gasped and muttered, "Wow," when Clinton said he borrowed college money at a 2 percent interest rate and assured them affordable education is a personal issue for the couple.
"The difference between our situation and yours was profound because we lived in an era where the president and the Congress, without regard to party, understood that we had a moral obligation to give our kids a chance to get educated and an economic necessity to do so.
"For Hillary and me to be told by our government that we mattered, it was incredible," he said.
Among the sea of students were some adults, including Kathleen Frederico, a computer support specialist from Point Marion, Pa. She carried a "Disgruntled Republicans for Hillary" sign, even though she changed her party affiliation to Democrat after the Reagan era.
"She was already in the White House for eight years. She knows her way around, and she could get things going on Day One," Frederico said.
Eric Pennington, a 20-year-old political science and economics major from Winfield, said that among the WVU student body, Obama appears to have more support than Clinton.
"But for the three of us, age doesn't mean much," he said, nodding at two classmates. "We want the experience to get things done, not the rhetoric."
Pennington was joined by fellow Hillary Clinton supporters Rita Snyder and Andrew Furr, who also "believe Hillary and her campaign are just right for the country," according to Snyder, a 20-year-old Cleveland resident who is majoring in political science and women's studies.
"She's the real change," Snyder said. "She has experience I can believe in and she has the ability to change the economy, gas prices and health care. I think she has the initiative and the connections to make things happen in Washington."
Furr, a 21-year-old political science major from Warrenton, Va., said health care is the main reason he supports Clinton.
"I think she can do it because as first lady she tried and failed," he said. "But she learned from her mistakes and I think she can do what she needs to do now to get it passed."
Data from exit polls of voters in 22 states found that Obama gets six in 10 votes of people under age 30. Clinton received nearly the same proportion of those 65 and up.
Wendy Alke, a 57-year-old Morgantown attorney, doesn't fit in either of those categories but says she's followed Clinton's career long before she was first lady.
"She's always exhibited caring and compassion for those who are in need, including children," said Alke, who dismissed critics who say Clinton is difficult to like.
"Because she's a woman, she has different hurdles she has to overcome," she said, adding that Clinton has to be careful at times to not be perceived as weak.
"She's doing what every woman in this society in the working world has to do. She gets up in the morning and she does the best she can."
About 40 miles southwest of Morgantown, Anne Sedlock enthusiastically shouted "woman power." She was among a crowd of several hundred who gathered around a home on Mulberry Street in Clarksburg, its front porch draped with red, white and blue bunting.
"I'm here for Hillary," said Clarksburg area resident Mary Jo Short, who was holding a small American flag. She says she wants a president committed to ending the war in Iraq and doing something about the economy.
In Clarksburg, Clinton contrasted his wife's appeal to working-class people with the elitists he says support Obama. He made the same comparison two months when he last campaigned in West Virginia, calling his wife's critics in the party "glitterati" and "elites."
"The great divide in this country is not by race or even income, it's by those who think they are better than everyone else and think they should play by a different set of rules," he said in Clarksburg. "In West Virginia and Arkansas, we know that when we see it."
Clinton said his wife's primary challenger has "got so much money and it's a different electorate. It's a little more upscale and modern ... than those poor people in Texas and Ohio."
He said an unnamed Obama supporter suggested the former president was being sent to small towns where he couldn't do any damage and was going to bring "Wal-Mart greeters to the polls."
"He thought he was insulting me, but I think he gave me a darn good idea."
Clinton also touched on the economy and health care, saying his wife would work hard to develop clean coal technology. He said Hillary Clinton is the only candidate with short-term and long-term solutions for rising gas prices - a summer-long national gas tax holiday and charging fees on oil companies with windfall profits.
While the plan has been criticized as political pandering, Bill Clinton says working families understand the need for immeditate relief.
He also said a win in West Virginia would show the country that the Democratic voters are behind his wife, despite what some might think.
"If the public is for you, it's hard for the politicians to stop you," he said.
Clinton stumped for his wife in Parkersburg, Chesapeake and Beckley in March and spoke at the Democrats' annual Jefferson-Jackson Dinner in Charleston in October.
Both Hillary Clinton and Obama made campaign stops in West Virginia in March.
West Virginia's primary is May 13.
MORGANTOWN -- Despite findings that Hillary Clinton has less support among young people than Barack Obama, West Virginia University students came out in droves Thursday to support the Democrat vying to be the nation's first female president.
And her husband spent an hour trying to persuade them she is the "change-maker" who deserves their vote, the person who will make critical decisions to reshape the nation within her first few years in office.
"There is a huge difference between good intentions and real changes in your life," Bill Clinton told more than 1,000 people - most of them students taking time out from finals week - who had waited for hours in a chilly morning rain for his nearly hour-long speech on historic Woodburn Circle.
"Everything I know about the presidency, and its possibilities as well as its difficulties ... . tells me that we have profoundly significant decisions that have to be made by the next president within the first year or so of taking office and we have got to get this show on the road," the former president said.
"She's the best qualified person I've ever had a chance to support," he said. "I would be here for Hillary even if we'd never married because she's the best change-maker I've ever seen."
In a speech that was heavier on substance than style, Clinton laid out dozens of reasons young people should help elect his wife, from promises of universal health care and a meaningful job-creation plan to her ideas for cutting gasoline prices and fighting global warming.
"I don't believe in talking down to people or trying to inflame them," he told the crowd. "I know that this is too big to be decided on little things."
But Clinton drew the loudest, most sustained applause when outlining his wife's plans to make college more affordable and prevent students from dropping out under financial pressure.
"She knows that every young American should be able to go to college, stay there and finish, and go as far as you can," he said, explaining her plan to raise Pell grants, more than double tuition tax credits and crack down the abuses of private student loan companies charging outrageous interest rates.
Some students gasped and muttered, "Wow," when Clinton said he borrowed college money at a 2 percent interest rate and assured them affordable education is a personal issue for the couple.
"The difference between our situation and yours was profound because we lived in an era where the president and the Congress, without regard to party, understood that we had a moral obligation to give our kids a chance to get educated and an economic necessity to do so.
"For Hillary and me to be told by our government that we mattered, it was incredible," he said.
Among the sea of students were some adults, including Kathleen Frederico, a computer support specialist from Point Marion, Pa. She carried a "Disgruntled Republicans for Hillary" sign, even though she changed her party affiliation to Democrat after the Reagan era.
"She was already in the White House for eight years. She knows her way around, and she could get things going on Day One," Frederico said.
Eric Pennington, a 20-year-old political science and economics major from Winfield, said that among the WVU student body, Obama appears to have more support than Clinton.
"But for the three of us, age doesn't mean much," he said, nodding at two classmates. "We want the experience to get things done, not the rhetoric."
Pennington was joined by fellow Hillary Clinton supporters Rita Snyder and Andrew Furr, who also "believe Hillary and her campaign are just right for the country," according to Snyder, a 20-year-old Cleveland resident who is majoring in political science and women's studies.
"She's the real change," Snyder said. "She has experience I can believe in and she has the ability to change the economy, gas prices and health care. I think she has the initiative and the connections to make things happen in Washington."
Furr, a 21-year-old political science major from Warrenton, Va., said health care is the main reason he supports Clinton.
"I think she can do it because as first lady she tried and failed," he said. "But she learned from her mistakes and I think she can do what she needs to do now to get it passed."
Data from exit polls of voters in 22 states found that Obama gets six in 10 votes of people under age 30. Clinton received nearly the same proportion of those 65 and up.
Wendy Alke, a 57-year-old Morgantown attorney, doesn't fit in either of those categories but says she's followed Clinton's career long before she was first lady.
"She's always exhibited caring and compassion for those who are in need, including children," said Alke, who dismissed critics who say Clinton is difficult to like.
"Because she's a woman, she has different hurdles she has to overcome," she said, adding that Clinton has to be careful at times to not be perceived as weak.
"She's doing what every woman in this society in the working world has to do. She gets up in the morning and she does the best she can."
About 40 miles southwest of Morgantown, Anne Sedlock enthusiastically shouted "woman power." She was among a crowd of several hundred who gathered around a home on Mulberry Street in Clarksburg, its front porch draped with red, white and blue bunting.
"I'm here for Hillary," said Clarksburg area resident Mary Jo Short, who was holding a small American flag. She says she wants a president committed to ending the war in Iraq and doing something about the economy.
In Clarksburg, Clinton contrasted his wife's appeal to working-class people with the elitists he says support Obama. He made the same comparison two months when he last campaigned in West Virginia, calling his wife's critics in the party "glitterati" and "elites."
"The great divide in this country is not by race or even income, it's by those who think they are better than everyone else and think they should play by a different set of rules," he said in Clarksburg. "In West Virginia and Arkansas, we know that when we see it."
Clinton said his wife's primary challenger has "got so much money and it's a different electorate. It's a little more upscale and modern ... than those poor people in Texas and Ohio."
He said an unnamed Obama supporter suggested the former president was being sent to small towns where he couldn't do any damage and was going to bring "Wal-Mart greeters to the polls."
"He thought he was insulting me, but I think he gave me a darn good idea."
Clinton also touched on the economy and health care, saying his wife would work hard to develop clean coal technology. He said Hillary Clinton is the only candidate with short-term and long-term solutions for rising gas prices - a summer-long national gas tax holiday and charging fees on oil companies with windfall profits.
While the plan has been criticized as political pandering, Bill Clinton says working families understand the need for immeditate relief.
He also said a win in West Virginia would show the country that the Democratic voters are behind his wife, despite what some might think.
"If the public is for you, it's hard for the politicians to stop you," he said.
Clinton stumped for his wife in Parkersburg, Chesapeake and Beckley in March and spoke at the Democrats' annual Jefferson-Jackson Dinner in Charleston in October.
Both Hillary Clinton and Obama made campaign stops in West Virginia in March.
West Virginia's primary is May 13.
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