Paul Ryan pulls an overflow crowd in Greenville | Eastern NC Now

    Publisher's Note: This article originally appeared in the Beaufort Observer.

    Thousands of Paul Ryan supporters gave up their Labor Day on Monday (9-3-12) to attend a rally on the ECU campus at which Paul Ryan promised those in attendance that he and Mitt Romney would move immediately after being elected to repeal ObamaCare and correct many of the other policies he characterized as failures of the Obama Administration, including saving Medicare.

    He pointed out Mitt Romney's record of success contrasted with that of Barack Obama. Several times he dissed Obama for his "you didn't build that ..." attitude. Clearly he hit the hot button issues of the crowd, as you will see in the video below.

    The rally was held in the ECU Student Recreation Center, which turned out to be woefully inadequate to accommodate the crowd. There were as many people left standing in line outside as there were admitted into the building. Even more were seen leaving as soon as they saw the lines and realized they would not be able to get entrance or find a parking space in downtown Greenville or on campus.

    Nonetheless, after Ryan finished speaking inside he went outside and spoke to those still outside who had been unable to get into the building. You may rest assured many outside were extremely impressed by this gesture. As one said: "this Dude's a real class act."

    A number of TV stations carried the speech live or streamed it online and there are a number of videos of the rally. The one below was posted on the WNCT-TV website:



    Several thousand people were denied admission to the event, many after driving for miles to Greenville, standing in line for two hours or more in the broiling hot summer sun. Even when the doors were closed ECU officials nor Greenville Police immediately advised those in line that they would not be able to get in. So they stood in line unknowing that the doors had been closed. The common refrain heard from most of them was: "why did they not hold this in Minges?"

    There was a small contingent of "protesters" present picketing with signs against Romney/Ryan. One protesters told us they were from the ECU Gay, Lesbian and Transgender Alliance. They lined up several yards from those waiting in line to get in to hear Ryan speak but were completely orderly.



    One Ryan supporter who told us she was originally from Germany went over and confronted some of the protesters. Here is here account of that "meeting":



    Click here to read the Breitbart.com report on the Ryan speech.