Biden in Greenville; Obama announces Raleigh visit

Joe Biden seems to be having some voter turnout issues in North Carolina.

Unlike fellow VP candidate Sarah Palin, who spoke to a crowd of several thousand Sunday in Asheville, Biden drew just 400 today at East Carolina University in Greenville. Last week, he managed about 1,500 for a morning speech at UNC Charlotte.

Expect a few more folks for Barack Obama, who will be speaking Wednesday in downtown Raleigh, his campaign just announced. The outdoor event, which begins at 11:15 a.m., will be at the Halifax Mall Government Complex on Salisbury Street. Gates open at 10 a.m.

In Greenville today, Mark Johnson reports that Biden rolled into one of the key territories his party is counting on to help win the White House: a college campus.

Reports Johnson:

Biden addressed an East Carolina University crowd in which students appeared to be a minority, but the visit reflected how much his running mate, U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, is counting on the youth vote. Democrats are hoping a wave of new, energized voters will help propel them to widespread victories on Election Day.

The modest-sized ECU crowd didn’t display a surge of support in this eastern North Carolina town, but students said the campus was dotted with signals that this year was different.

Mary Morgan Mills, a freshman elementary education major from Charlotte, said the Obama campaign routinely sets up a table for voter registration in the commons area where students eat lunch.

“They’re always handing out flyers,” Mills said. “I’ve seen a (John) McCain table once.”

Librarian Rita Khazanie, 55, said students seem more attentive and enthusiastic than in years past.


“Everybody seems to know more about the issues,” Khazanie said. “It’s not just, ‘I’m going to vote for somebody.’ It’s, ‘Here’s why.’”

What Rachel Sykes noticed is not that her friends say they’re going to support Obama, but that so many have already done it, said the senior public relations major from Selma.


Biden, a U.S. senator from Delaware, delivered a 25-minute speech, part of which mocked Republican efforts to distance McCain, the Arizona senator and Republican presidential nominee, from President Bush.

“I know Halloween’s coming,” Biden said, “but John McCain, dressed as an agent of change – that costume doesn’t fit.”


During visits Monday and last Thursday, Biden made five stops in North Carolina. Four were on college campuses.

“There are more students eligible to vote in North Carolina than the number of votes by which North Carolina’s presidential vote was decided in 2004,” said Paul Cox, spokesman for Obama’s N.C. campaign.


Democrats account for about half of the 400,000 newly registered voters in North Carolina. Republicans gained half that many.

Younger voters typically don’t show up in the polls, with their participation rates trailing far behind older voters. Obama’s campaign, however, has invested heavily in campaign staff in North Carolina and other states. Part of their mission has been rounding up volunteers, including on college campuses where they “storm the dorms” for voters, Cox said.


Biden spoke directly to students, emphasizing that they have the most at stake, since their entire future is ahead. He highlighted how Obama wants to broaden the definition of the kind of public service that helps earn money for college beyond serving in the military.

“If you commit to our communities, our hospitals, our schools, the underserved areas,” Biden said, “If you serve our country, we will get you to college.”

College students provide a relatively untapped reservoir of support, said Peter Francia, a political science professor at ECU. While students are busy, many of them have more time for political activity than working voters who are raising families. They’re also more comfortable using technology – email, texting and the like – to communicate, which has become an effective and successful means of reaching voters for modern campaigns.


Like others on campus, Francia said the atmosphere on college campuses is different this year.

“There were not young people packing auditoriums,” Francia said, “to see (Democratic presidential candidate) John Kerry in 2004.”