Big Man On Campus: The Liveblog
Former President Bill Clinton is back in Austin, and since I'm out here at UT where he will soon hold a rally for students, I'll liveblog between responsibilities for the 5 and 6pm newscasts.
7:48pm: And Clinton wraps up... "He cheats us out of four and half minutes of a sixty minute speech!" The AP reporter jokes.
7:47pm: We're almost at the one hour now. The Time reporter goes, "Doesn't it feel longer, though?"
7:39pm: "We've been very serious tonight," Clinton admits. "THink about what being president is like... if you're not careful you might think you are somebody rather than what you are, which is the most fortunate hired hand on the face of the earth. If you ever forget, you can get in trouble in a heartbeat. She will never forget you."
7:33pm: Now we're on Iraq policy.
7:30pm:I just asked the Time reporter a question about something Clinton said, and she goes, "Sorry, I was zoned out." This has been a meaty speech, but he's losing the crowd.
7:24pm: "She believes in getting rid of No Child Left Behind," he said. And everyone applauses. Clinton says "this is the only surefire applause line in American politics". "You could drop me in the middle of Idaho and if I said that, an elk would applause."
7:22pm: The Time Magazine reporter sitting next to me and I started chatting a bit since we're kind of in a lull part of this speech. Clinton is coming back around to the subject of healthcare.
7:18pm: "The only motherload of clean jobs is clean energy," he said.
7:14pm: The subject has turned to energy, and the cost of food going up because of the rate that energy costs have been climbing.
7:10pm: "Hillary's argument is I'm tainted the battles of yesterday and I'm pretty proud of the things I fought for. You need a changemaker in the White House, somebody who has already done it," Clinton said. "Words matter, but in the end you choose people to change and move the country. She's the best change agent."
7:08pm: Clinton is taking us a tour on his wife's record regarding healthcare - expanding special education, helping start SCHIP.
7:01pm: Clinton is making the case for his wife by mixing in personal antecdotes dating back to the time they met at Yale Law School.
6:57pm: "I obviously have a preference," Clinton said. "I do love my wife, I plead guilty. And today is our daughter's 28th birthday. You can't filter all that out of what you say," he said. "But I love my country too and I want you to have a wonderful future. Knowing what I know about the demands of the presidency... I believe she is the best candidate for president I have ever had a chance to support."
6:54pm: In explaining the caucus system, Clinton says that you must show up at your caucus location "between seven and seven fifteen". THIS IS NOT TRUE. Caucuses will START at or around 7:15pm, but caucus doors will NOT shut you out at 7:15pm.
6:54pm: A heckler comes into the crowd - "You're a liar, you're a liar, he screams." Clinton works into his speech, saying "It is an honor for me to be heckled by people who don't know the truth," Clinton said.
6:52pm: President Clinton takes the mic, and about five hundred cell phones and cameras go into the air at once.
6:51pm: "Don't tell me it doesn't matter who is President of the United States, experience matters" Cisneros said.
6:43pm: Clinton emerges from the main building with Henry Cisneros. The music sounded like it was the song the Crystal Clear Pepsi commercial, but it's U2.
6:41pm: Oh, the impatience of youth. The former president has yet to take the stage, and some students are starting to file out.
6:40pm: The Clinton Texas campaign has called me back, which means I have stopped the unofficial response time tracker, see the post below.
6:22pm: Crowd's starting to get a bit restless, I'm hearing a lot of "We Want Bill! We Want Bill!"
6:06pm: A reminder now, we're only 1000 feet away from an early vote location. (Early voting ends on Friday.)
6:04pm: Woo hoo! The crowd gets riled up when they start throwing our free t-shirts.
6:02pm: Austin City Councilwoman Jennifer Kim just took the stage in a rather quixotic effort to rally the crowd. "There are people here from Asia, from Africa... people from far away," she said.
5:51pm: In place on the press risers now, and I would guess this is about 3,000 folks. The University Dem President and VP just spoke to make clear they aren't endorsing anyone in this race.
5:28pm: A good crowd. It looks like more than two thousand, and doors open in two minutes. Police will have a better crowd estimate after everyone's in one area.
5:04pm: Well, that was strange. We were outside near the perimeter (gates not open yet) where hundreds of students are waiting to get in. Then a group of Barack Obama supporters holding gigantic pop art pictures of Obama's face started moving through the crowd... some of them passing out Obama stickers.
Then some students started yelling, "Obama! Go Obama!"
Wait a second... isn't this a Clinton rally?
4:52pm: For anyone who wants to make it down here, the doors open at 5:30pm.
4:46pm: We are in the middle of a technical disaster with our livetrucks. We just had to switch trucks, after the first one couldn't get powered up in time. It may be a little bit before my next blog update.
4:26pm: Still no one's being let in, so the crowd fof people is growing. It's a good 200 people now.
4:20pm: Students are lined up to get into the perimeter on the Main Lawn (or is it Main Mall) underneath the tower. There's a healthy throng -- I'd say about sixty people. Secret Service is doing a security sweep right now so it's a lot of standing around.
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