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Former President Bill Clinton spoke Friday morning at the Kathleen Price Bryan Family YMCA in downtown Greensboro. Later in the morning he spoke in the Slane Student Center at High Point University.

Here are some of the sights and sounds from his speech in Greensboro on behalf of his wife and Democratic candidate for president, Hillary Clinton:



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The former president started off like most good speakers: with a joke

He reminded the audience that his stop in Greensboro was one of seven today.

"That's good for me and good for you," Clinton said. "That means I have to give a shorter speech."

His speech — part conversation, part college lecture, part stump speech — still went for 34 minutes and ended at 9:07 a.m. He was due in High Point at 9:30 a.m.


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Anyone who remembers the early years of the Clinton presidency should remember one of the adjectives frequently applied to him. No, not slick. Wonkish.

In case you're wondering, yes, the former president is still a wonk. In one five minute section of his speech, Clinton let fly with these numbers:

* "12 of your fellow Americans" (who drive special battery-powered cars that get 100 miles to the gallon

* "20 percent interest" (on privately financed college loans)

* "$50 billion" (the amount spent by private insurers to figure out ways not to pay claims)

* "30 cents of every dollar (the amount that private insurers spend on paperwork and overhead)

* "hundreds of different insurance companies writing thousands of different policies"


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Things that Bill Clinton mentioned in his speech: The economy, the war in Iraq, Hillary, Greensboro, Katrina, health care, changemaker, children and grandchildren, Pennsylvania (where he was Thursday night before coming to North Carolina), his eight-year tenure as president, battery-powered cars, soldiers.

Things that Bill Clinton did not mention in his speech: Sen. Barack Obama, President George W. Bush, Sen. John McCain.


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One of the arguments Clinton put forth on behalf of his wife is that, if she's elected president, will not get caught up in the trappings of the office and lose touch with the people who put here there. To explain that, Clinton took a brief detour down Nostalgia Lane.

During his eight years as what he called "the world's most fortunate public servant," he worked in the world's most famous office every day and slept in the world's best-known public housing every night. And every time he entered a room, someone played "Hail to the Chief."

"I was lost for three weeks after I left the White House" in 2001, he recalled. "Nobody played a song. I didn't know where I was."


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The crowd started to file into one of the YMCA's gyms at about 7:30 a.m. The crowd steadily built until about 8:30 a.m., when Bill Clinton took the stage. (Clinton, notorious for running late, was about 30 minutes tardy Friday.) There were no delays or lines to get into the event, and campaign organizers did not give credentials to journalists. All told, about 250 people, not including a handful of local journalists, were there.

It was a much smaller affair than the town hall meeting Wednesday held by Sen. Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton's opponent for the Democratic presidential nomination. Lines to get into that event stretched from the front door of War Memorial Auditorium on Lee Street to a driveway across the street from Stamey's on High Point Road. About 2,000 people filled the auditorium to hear Obama.


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As the crowd waited, music played. Here's what the Bill Clinton Dance Party Mix looks like:

* "Every Little Thing She Does is Magic" by the Police

* "(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher" by Jackie Wilson

* "Check it Out" by John Mellencamp

* "Life is a Highway" by Tom Corchrane - this was the song played after Clinton came on stage.

Other artists that were played during the wait for Clinton to appear were Bruce Hornsby and U2. Clinton worked the post-speech rope line to the Foo Fighters' "My Hero."


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Some of the first people to arrive at the Bryan YMCA were students from Greensboro College, who got good seats in a row of bleachers right next to the stage. The Hillary Clinton campaign had recruited students by e-mail Thursday afternoon. The only catch: They had to be there before 7 a.m.

"I haven't been up this early in years," said senior Cory Thompson of Nashville, Tenn.

"I didn't get to sleep last night," added Megan Carr, a sophomore from Durham.

The group of 25 students was split between Hillary supporters and undecided voters, Thompson said. All of them liked and respected the former president, he added.

Photos from Bill Clinton's visit in Greensboro

Keep checking back for more updates.