A Presidential Visit
April 8th, 2008, 2:01 pm · Post a Comment · posted by journalismrookie
It’s not every day that you can say a president is coming to town. But on April 2, Seymour, Columbus, Bedford and Bloomington could say just that.
That’s when the 42nd president of the United States, Bill Clinton, visited the southern Indiana cities to speak on behalf of his wife, Hillary Clinton, who is one of the Democractic candidates for presidency.
Numbers tallied 1,300 at Seymour High School during Clinton’s visit to the school’s auxiliary gym. The house was packed, with a majority of people standing, but it was anticipated that people would flow out into the commons area…but that didn’t happen. After a nearly two-hour delay, Clinton finally arrived and spoke for nearly an hour.
He told the audience that he had arrived in Indiana from Montana at 3:15 a.m. Not long after arriving in the Hoosier State, he learned that Hillary had just taken the lead in Indiana polls.
Clinton shared his wife’s views on the economy, the war in Iraq, health care and veterans affairs. He stated a few times that his wife is the right choice for the job. Here are some quotes I pulled from Tribune reporter Aubrey Woods’ story:
–”Hillary wants your support and knows it can be used to change this country and make the world a better place.”
–”She wants us going forward together. All of us together. She wants us to be a leading force in the world again.”
–”She’s got the best plan to grow the economy,” which includes an energy independence drive, producing more goods in America, re-examining trade agreements and eliminating trade deficits.
It was definitely a busy day for many people, including people at the Tribune.
Aubrey brought along his laptop and jotted down notes and quotes as Clinton spoke. Before everything had begun, Aubrey typed up a timeline as the morning went along, providing online readers information about what was going on throughout the morning. That was kind of a neat addition and service to the online experience.
Sports editor Arv Koontz took pictures during the first part of Clinton’s speech, before heading back to the newsroom to get pictures to Joanne Persinger to get online. He then handed the camera off to Aubrey, who took some shots here and there.
January Wetzel talked to people waiting in line to get in before the speech, and got their comments on the Clintons, the election, voting, etc. Jill Treadway tagged along and got some of those comments on video. Inside, January and Jill were up on the right-hand side of the stage up above the crowd getting pictures and video during and after the speech.
I was at the back of the gym getting video of the entire speech, and I also got a few shots here and there of the crowd, band, etc.
So in all, several Tribuners (yeah, I guess I made that word up just now) got to experience a presidential visit. We were there about five hours, but I would say it was worth it. It had been many, many years since a president came to the area, so it was a good thing for people of all ages to attend and see for themselves.
With something like this, I really don’t think it matters what political party you’re from. Attending something like this will be something you’ll remember for years to come.
***Check out a couple of videos Jill put together on our Web site, tribtown.com. One was posted the day of Clinton’s visit, highlighting some things he said as well as Clinton supporters. The other video is more focused on her and January’s reporting before the speech.
I’ll be working on one highlighting other points of his speech, and other shots I got during the speech. Look for it soon.
We’ll be posting more pictures on our Web site, so look for those as well. Also look for Aubrey’s full story on the speech on our Web site, and January’s story of talking to people from around the area.
***If you’d like to purchase videos or pictures from The Tribune, here’s how to do that:
-pictures: on our Web site under photo galleries (there’s a special gallery of Clinton pictures); or if you’d like, stop by The Tribune, 100 St. Louis Ave., Seymour, and purchase them.
-video: stop by The Tribune or call 522-4871. There will end up being three videos you could purchase if you’d like, including a highlight video, public comments/Clinton fans or the entire speech.
