http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/963684/posts?q=1&&page=51
Plain Dealer report:
Hillary Rodham Clinton was not openly campaigning last night in Cleveland's Shaker Square.
Instead, a lot of people were doing it for her, wearing "Hillary for President" buttons, cheering "Hillary in 2008" and signing up for Clinton booster groups at Joseph-Beth Booksellers, where the former first lady drew a crowd of about 2,000 for a book-signing of her recently published autobiography, "Living History."
Clinton, now a Democratic U.S. senator from New York, made an entrance by descending from the store's second floor to the first in a glass elevator to the delighted screams of onlookers who had begun gathering about 3 p.m., two hours before the signing actually began.
She waved to the crowd, posed for pictures with her book and immediately set about signing 1,000 copies of it for purchasers who had been given tickets to the signing by the store starting in June.
"Living History" already has made history by becoming the fastest-selling work of nonfiction ever.
First in line was a beaming Gladys Thomas, 64, of Shaker Heights. Earlier, while waiting for the queue to form, Thomas had expressed her unhappiness with President Bush. She said one of the reasons she came to get her book signed was her hope that Sen. Clinton would beat Bush in the upcoming presidential race.
"If anybody's gonna do it, it would be her," Thomas said.
Jean Joseph, 79, who lives in Shaker Square, agreed. Joseph, a native of Martha's Vineyard, where the Clintons often vacation, said: "I think she's fabulous, and the book's fabulous. I have a lot of admiration for the kind of human being she is. I even like Bill."
After Clinton signed her book, Joseph said she had told the senator that she had delayed a vacation trip to Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts by a day so she could attend the signing.
While Clinton smiled, greeted people and wrote her name hundreds of times, local supporters Lana Moresky and Roberta Feinstein were in the store lobby, handing out forms to people interested in signing up for a Clinton support group.
"I'm doing this on my own because I couldn't let this opportunity go by," Moresky said, showing a bunch of already-filled-out forms.
Demand for the forms was so great, Feinstein added, "They're ripping it out of my hand."
But the opposition was there, too. A few protesters stood across the street from the store, bearing anti-abortion and anti-Hillary posters. One, scribbled in black marker, read, "I would have made a good sign for Monica."
One group of protesters had been brought together through Freerepublic.com, a politically conservative Web site. They took issue with Clinton's politics and what they called her untruthfulness.
"A better title for her book would be 'Omitting History,' " said Tom Adams of Wadsworth, who was part of the Freerepublic.com group.
Protesters and fans alike remained peaceful throughout the afternoon and evening. Secret Service and Cleveland police had secured the back half of the Joseph-Beth building hours earlier, and the book-signing line moved efficiently through the densely peopled store to the rear, where television crews and reporters squeezed in to record Clinton scribbling and chatting with the mostly female crowd.
She had a big smile and hello for everyone, but especially for the children who walked through with their parents.
"What a pretty dress," she said to a little girl in a long gold and black velvet gown. The child said her name was Chelsea, like Clinton's daughter. "You're kidding!" Clinton said. "How do you spell it?"
By 7:15 p.m., Clinton had signed her last book, posed with the Joseph-Beth staff for souvenir pictures and bought some summer reading on her way out of the store. Her appearance was the largest gathering for an author that the store had ever hosted, said Joseph-Beth spokeswoman Stephanie Siegel.
Clinton press secretary Philippe Reines said the senator was heading to a local fund-raiser and then home to New York last night after a book tour that had taken her to Minneapolis, Kansas City, St. Louis, Atlanta and Detroit before coming to Cleveland.
96 posted on 08/14/2003 7:18 AM PDT by mountaineer [ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 88 | View Replies | Report Abuse ]
Nauseating....