"Lots of us have seen the debates on big screens in the auditorium, but having her here in person is so much better," said Devin Robertson, a 19-year-old sophomore from Aberdeen. "The students have just taken to Barack. Everywhere, all you hear is `Barack, Barack, Barack.'"
Fran Weaver and four of her friends, all retired and members of a Unitarian congregation in Salisbury, drove to UMES, about 15 miles, to hear Obama. On Sunday, the group had joined 500 or more Democrats for a rally in Cambridge.
"I wanted to hear the next first lady of the United States," Weaver said. "We didn't want to miss that chance so close to home."
In Montgomery County later yesterday, 900 people packed the auditorium at Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School to hear Michelle Obama, with hundreds more listening in on loudspeakers outside.
She said her husband's campaign has surged because "people are hopeful again."
"It's not based on race or gender or political party," the Harvard-educated attorney told the cheering crowd.
"What we've been seeing all over this country," she said, "is something that folks haven't seen in a long time. Millions of people turning out and coming together behind a single, common idea: That we can be united around something positive. That we're ready for change, and we're ready to move this country in a different direction."
Obama was introduced by the teenage daughter of Rep. Chris Van Hollen. As chairman of the House Democrats' campaign operation, Van Hollen has remained neutral in the presidential contest, but his daughter Anna, said she "could not be more excited" to cast her first presidential vote for Obama.
Chris Guy reported from Princess Anne. Sun Washington reporter Matthew Hay Brown reported from Bethesda.
