At Wake Forest, Hillary Clinton and Maya Angelou Talk About Bringing the Country Together

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WINSTON-SALEM, N.C.--Sen. Hillary Clinton traveled to Wake Forest University for a "conversation" with noted poet, author and supporter Maya Angelou on Friday night. (http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/news/politics/blog/2008/04/maya_angelou_with_clinton_for.html)

During the Angelou-Clinton conversation, the poet and educator, who delivered a poem at Bill Clinton's 1992 inaugural, said she watched a Hillary Clinton as First Lady who was "a woman in stress, in difficulty. I watched her as she was on the front pages of every journal in the world. And, I watched her stand."

Angelou acknowledged she has a daughter who is supporting Obama's candidacy.





"She is serious thinking and she has found that person who she thinks would be the best to run, lead and help us to develop our country," Angelou said of her daughter. "I appreciate that. I respect her for it. I have found the person I think to be the best president of the United States of America."

Angelou has previously taped radio ads targeted for African-American audiences in South Carolina. She also said she has hosted similar "conversations" at Wake Forest with Harry Belafante, Oprah Winfrey and Geena Davis, called Clinton a "long-distance runner."


Senator Clinton was confronted with her husband’s affair at this Hillary-friendly event with his poet-laureate.

“Hillary, I love you. I always have and I always will,” said the first woman in the audience called upon for a question by Senator Clinton. “I felt so sorry for you when Bill had his affair.” (http://embeds.blogs.foxnews.com/2008/04/18/clinton-backer-brings-up-affair/)





As the crowd started to get riled up, the woman continued “I know nobody wants to talk about it. I felt so sorry. I think now the best way to overcome it is to become president.”

But the woman didn’t want to know about that infamous infidelity — instead asking “who do you want to pick as your running mate?” Clinton addressed that innocuous query with her standard response, saying “I can’t answer the question who do I want to pick as my running mate because I’m not the nominee. And both Senator Obama and I have said on numerous occasions that its presumptuous and premature.”

She did not, however, address the first part of the woman’s question.
"And however the odds may go and the polls may show, from day to night to tomorrow morning, I know she's in it for the long run," Angelou said. "I am honored to say I am with her for the long run."





Clinton called Angelou "a grace note in our lives" and fondly recalled reading her autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.

In front of about 2,000 people at Wait Chapel, the two spoke about overcoming bigotry of all kinds and bringing the country together.

"We are so much more alike than we are different," Clinton said. "We have allowed those relatively minor differences among us to defy and divide us, and one of the challenges of the 21st century is to affirm our common humanity."