Thousands of people lined up outside Pucillo Gymnasium in Millersville late Tuesday afternoon to attend a “Town Hall Meeting” with former First Lady Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton.
They endured rain, wind, and temperatures hovering around 40. Many waited for nearly three hours in these conditions. In the end, a little more than 3,000 people got to see Mrs. Clinton while hundreds of others were shut out – forced to either listen from outside or leave.
Roughly half of the attendees appeared to be Millersville students, while most of the remainder made the trip from their respective portions of the County.
And not all were Hillary Clinton supporters. Advocates of Republican candidate Ron Paul displayed large signs from the roof of a parking garage and chanted campaign slogans.
Banners and signs, both for and against Hillary Clinton’s candidacy were paraded up and down the nearly 1/4 mile-long line of people waiting to gain entry to the gym.
Others were selling Hillary Clinton button pins, as freezing and increasingly impatient people danced in the cold.
But it was worth the wait for those who made it inside.
But the others too seemed equally committed.
Matt Johnson, a Lancaster City resident, was trying to register voters for Obama.
Hillary Clinton is “a rugged politician,” he said. “She knows what she’s doing.”
He feels that Clinton and Obama would make “about equally good presidents” and that Obama’s liberal colors and unique ability to inspire a coalition tip the scales to Obama for him.
Richard Payne, a Millersville University senior shared that he doesn’t vote but supports Hillary in the primary. “I think she’s the only candidate with the gusto to make a real change,” he said.
He continued that he doesn’t think Obama has enough experience to be the next commander in chief.
Tina Hilsee described her support for Hillary Clinton as “more of a gut thing than a policy thing… She’s a middle-aged woman and so am I,” she said, going on to say that “Hillary is more seasoned than Obama.”
