With a little more than 48 hours to go before polls close in Virginia, Sen. Hillary Clinton made the case for her onetime foe Barack Obama at George Mason University on Sunday.
A few hundred supporters gathered and waited more than three hours to see her on the chilly night, and she rewarded their patience with words of encouragement. Clinton told the assembly to hold on to the momentum for the Democratic nominee in the waning hours of the election.
Obama’s lead in recent Virginia polls has been narrowing, and Clinton has a substantial following among Northern Virginia voters, especially women, who backed her in the state’s February primary. The New York senator’s trip to this section of Fairfax on Sunday demonstrates Obama’s intense focus on the Old Dominion.
Joining her Sunday was Fairfax County Chairman Gerry Connolly, who is running his own campaign for Congress.
Both Connolly and Clinton went on the attack against John McCain and the Republican Party, playing a tune that’s been heard along the campaign trail for months as they sought to link McCain to what the Democrats called “the failed policies of George Bush.”
“George Bush has practiced what John McCain has preached,” Clinton said to applause.
Among those in the crowd was Fairfax resident Rachel Conway, 24, who said she was a “big-time” Clinton supporter during the primaries.
“I struggled when Hillary lost, but in the end I just couldn’t bring myself to support a Republican,” Conway said.
That’s the same conclusion Clinton wanted the crowd to draw.
“I want everyone who worked for me to go out and work for Obama over the next two days,” Clinton said. “Barack Obama and Joe Biden are for you, and that’s why I’m for Barack Obama and Joe Biden.”
Clinton repeatedly urged the crowd to go out, talk to neighbors, knock on doors and make phone calls in the final push to “close the deal for Barack Obama so we can close the book of George Bush.”
