The line began at 5 a.m. By 10 a.m., nearly 2,000 people extended from the War Memorial Auditorium entrance out of sight behind the Coliseum. It conjured up images of music festivals or Los Angeles freeways, the only places I’ve seen so many people and so much raw energy all crammed together. Responding to this same common “rock-concert” cliché about Barack Obama campaign rallies, Max Carter, director of the Friends Center and campus ministry coordinator, said that Obama’s March 26 Town Hall Meeting in Greensboro did not conform.

“I didn’t see any drugs or sex the whole afternoon,” Carter said. “In line it had the atmosphere of a big family reunion, just a big festive atmosphere.”

Martha Assefa, a junior with an internship with the Democratic Party in Greensboro this semester, said the two-hour wait “seemed like nothing . because of the positive attitude of people and the excitement.”

“It just felt like a group of very diverse people who were genuinely excited (about politics) for the first time in their life,” she said.

Junior Hedyn Ericson, who took a year off after high school in 2004 to volunteer for the Democratic Party, attributes much of the excitement and young support Obama receives to the fact that, since 2000, “people our age became politically aware. I know a lot of friends of mine whose reactions in this election cycle was to support extreme candidates. I think that’s indicative of their want for a fresh, new, unorthodox, different kind of candidate.”

Ten Guilford students, including Ericson and junior Eddie Guimont, volunteered at the rally. Guimont previously volunteered with both the Howard Dean and John Kerry presidential campaigns and said that Obama’s “campaign seems a lot larger and more organized than those did.” He says part of Obama’s success comes from his ability to make “people think he’s the candidate for all the people.”

By one o’clock, the audience had packed into the auditorium after waiting for hours and surviving the five local, state and national law enforcement agencies, their intense security screenings and their large German shepherds. While the pretentious national press and anxious audience members struggled to find the best angles for a picture, Obama walked calmly onto the stage and took his place at the podium. 55 lucky Greensboro residents sat just behind him under a large banner reading “Change We Can Believe In” with American and North Carolina flags hanging on each side.

Obama covered several issues in the nearly two hours he spent in the auditorium and the overflow room at the Coliseum, most which were well received by the audience.

“He cracked me up when he was talking about no child left behind,” Assefa said about Obama’s quip that “on no child left behind we left the money behind.”

Other issues were more controversial, including a question from a Southern Baptist high school student about Obama’s religious beliefs.

According to Carter, the most important questions in American politics tend to be about “religion and your sex life, the two things that Europe cares absolutely nothing about.”

Because of the “Jeremiah Wright (Obama’s former preacher) controversy, and (questions) in some extreme right wing blogs about whether Obama’s even Christian or not, it’s a crucial element to this campaign,” Carter said. “His response to me was absolutely brilliant. First off he used the key terms an evangelical Christian would be looking for . Then Obama went on to say that, and this is what warmed the cockles of my little Quaker heart, it’s not just what you believe but how you live.”

“That question really drove me up the wall,” Ericson, a Christian, said. “There were all these other questions that could have been asked that were pushed aside.”

Carter disagreed, saying, “I would pick at the Guilford students (who disapproved of this) for not being aware of the theological complexities and the political ramifications of that question.”

Several members of the Guilford community also thought that Obama’s immigration policies, which he said he wants to be effective and not “a political football,” became just that.

“The one cringe-worthy moment was when he said that illegal immigrants have broken the law,” senior Chelsea Simpson said about Obama’s plan for seeking economic and legal restitution from illegal immigrants. “But I understand that at the end of the day he’s a politician.”

“The section on immigration I didn’t like that much because he had very strict views,” Assefa said. “I think (the process) needs to be changed before he can be strict. He didn’t answer it wrong, it was just different from what I believe.”

Carter said Obama would find it difficult to force illegal aliens, some who have worked for less than minimum wage for more than 15 years, to pay upwards of $50,000 dollars in back taxes. It could have “enormous financial ramifications,” he said.

“Compared to other candidates he certainly has a more acceptable policy,” Carter said. “I’d like to see some more wrestling with the ramifications of that like he did with the faith question.”

As for me, I was most impressed by Obama’s ability to gear his speech toward Greensboro’s college crowd, both young and old. Aware of the city’s large college community, he delved into his policy to provide a $4,000 “lifelong learning credit” to “upgrade skills” and provide education and training for people of all ages, incomes and education levels in exchange for community service.

Obama also wants to “work with colleges and universities to reduce tuition” and said that “universities need to work themselves to keep costs down.”

“That textbook,” he said, “didn’t cost 100 dollars to make.