Live-blogging and setting the scene
Posted: Wednesday, April 16, 2008 7:57 PM by Mark Murray
From NBC's Lauren Appelbaum
PHILADELPHIA -- I'll be live blogging the debate from on site here in the city of Brotherly Love, while Mark and Chuck will be doing so from DC.
Hundreds of Clinton and Obama supporters greeted the press as they arrived today. The crowds around the Constitution Center here competed for the media's attention, with a blimp saying "boilermakers for Obama" flying above a mainly pro-Clinton area of supporters and a car driving by on a loop with models of Hillary and Bill Clinton sitting in the back.
One Clinton supporter is attempting to capitalize on the "bitter drama," holding a homemade sign saying "I'm not bitter because I vote better!"
Another woman who truly wants to vote for both candidates held a sign saying "Hillary 2008, Obama 2016."
Interest groups are taking advantage of the crowd to blast their messages. Two people are driving a van advertising clean coal, throwing t-shirts out the windows of the vehicle. DividedWeFail.org is using a billboard display on a truck calling for "healthcare and financial security for all." And those advocating the fair tax painted a bus to drive through the area.
A crowd favorite is a yellow car driving with a large billboard on top saying "Not Another War" and a trailer with Bush sitting on top a bomb labeled for Iran.
