3500 fill downtown Roanoke to hear Bill Clinton

By Lindsey Ward

Published: October 12, 2008

Former President Clinton receives a warm welcome walking into the center of the Star City and he wastes no time getting to why he’s here.

“Barack Obama and Joe Biden are going to win here on Election Day with your help,” Clinton said.
   
Addressing a diverse crowd, Clinton speaks straight to the hearts of middle class America. Constantly reminding them of a better economic time when he was sitting in the White House.

“We had almost 8 million people moving from poverty into the middle class when you gave me a chance to serve now we’ve had 5 and a half million move from the middle class back into poverty almost all of them while they were working full time,” said Clinton.
   
Hope for a better economic future is the first reason he says he’s throwing support behind Barack Obama, the second is Obama’s commitment to energy independence.  Finally, Clinton says he sees presidential leadership in the candidate.

“You cannot worry about the polls in a crisis you got to do what you think is right and tell the American people you did your best, judge you by whether it works or not, that’s the kind of president he’ll be.”
   
Through out the rally supporters took snapshots of a moment they won’t soon forget, but the Tuckers will remember this day for other reasons.  In between their wedding and reception they caught Clinton’s rally in Market Square.
“We came by to see it and support Obama and Clinton and they found us and we actually got to meet President Clinton,” Adrienne Tucker said.
   
Others had their chance to shake hands as well, before Clinton hit the road again for this final leg of the campaign trail.

Clinton’s message lasted for about 30 minutes, where he encouraged supporters to spread the word in hopes Virginia would vote democratic in the next several weeks.