CONNIE’S WORLD

Wilmington, NC – It was a photo op I just couldn’t pass up. First, Hillary Clinton come to the Port City and, then, Barack Obama appeared here the next morning.

It was a perfect evening while we waited on the river front for nearly 3 hours for Senator Hillary Clinton to show up and speak to the (I’m guessing here) 3000 plus people. The thunder storms promised thankfully never arrived.

My daughter, Katie, and her friend, Victoria patiently waited with me. We purposely got there early to get near the front, but we had no idea that we would be about 3 people from the very front.

Hillary Clinton spoke on the river front at sunset on April 27th, 2008.

Hillary arrived to cheering crowds. She spoke as the sun set with the Cape Fear River and the WWII battleship USS North Carolina as her backdrop. She promised change, to kill the “no child left behind” program and much more. It was exciting to be so close, to listen and photograph history in the making.

The next day Barack Obama was at Trask Coliseum at UNCW. Tickets were hard to get but I managed to get a couple of the last tickets available. Thankfully, these were seats where the night before we stood or sat on the concrete waiting for Hillary. Katie could not join me this time.

In Obama’s audience were 5000+ people according to his comments when he arrived. The crowd was a different kind of democrat. It was almost as if there were two different political parties within the one Democratic Party.

Barack Obama spoke at UNCW on Monday April 28th, 2008 at 1pm.

Obama spoke about how Washington was broken and managed to get his audience fired-up. He, too, promised change.

Again, it was a thrill to be there for the photo opportunity. People ask me, after watching them both, whom I liked better. It’s hard to say. Judging by the crowd, I’d say Obama had an edge. In all fairness to Clinton, we did not stay until the end of her speech. We had not eaten dinner and were feeling a little weak by 8pm. We left a few minutes before she finished so I don’t know how the crowd reacted at the end.

Constance H. Knox

Pictures on this entire web site are Copyright © 2008 Constance Henley Knox. All Rights Reserved, You may download to view for personal use only. For commercial purposes and any reproductions, please Contact Connie for rates.