PRINCESS ANNE -- Morning classes were all but canceled yesterday at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore as Michelle Obama arrived at the rural campus to stump for her husband's presidential campaign.
Students and faculty members, who had scrambled for seats at the university's performance hall for the noontime speech, greeted Obama with a standing ovation.
Obama, speaking for nearly an hour without notes, charmed the crowd of about 1,200 students and professors who say Barack Obama's bid for the Democratic nomination has stirred the historically black campus like nothing in memory.
"Having his wife here was very exciting, the way things have been growing on campus about Barack," said Jelila Jones, a senior. "When you have a lady as inspirational as that, it left an impression on all of us."
Michelle Obama's Eastern Shore appearance was the first of two in Maryland in advance of today's primary. Later yesterday, a year to the day after her husband declared his candidacy, she spoke to more than 900 people at Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School in Bethesda.
At UMES, Carolyn Shackleford, a math and computer teacher there for 15 years, said she has never seen students so focused, especially since most could not have imagined Barack Obama's race against Sen. Hillary Clinton even a few months ago.
"The truth is, we let the students go," Shackleford said. "This is moment they are going to remember forever."
Michelle Obama, standing beneath a huge "Change" banner, called the grueling presidential primary campaign a journey of faith, sacrifice and dedication.
"We need leadership to bring us together, not pull us apart."
Speaking fondly of her childhood, Obama praised her father, who was a Chicago city employee while her mother worked in the home, a choice she said most blue-collar families cannot afford now.
Careful not to name Clinton or Republican adversaries, Obama criticized the Iraq war and President Bush's No Child Left Behind program, an initiative she said is "sucking the life out of public schools."
"In 2008, all children should be able to imagine any future for themselves," Obama said. "My parents were able to send two children to Princeton. ... I wouldn't be here without those neighborhood schools we had right around the corner."
Many students called Obama's appearance the high point in months of political activity on campus. Most said Barack Obama leads Clinton by a wide margin at UMES, where black enrollment is about 77 percent.
