They're Just the Hil-hil-hillary girls

Happening now, March 6, 2008, 6:39 p.m.: The Jefferson Jackson Hamer Day Annual Mississippi Democratic Party Dinner in Canton, Miss., at which Hillary Clinton is scheduled to speak:

The first sound one hears upon entering the premises of the Mississippi Democratic Party's Jefferson Jackson Hamer Day Dinner is that of a banjo.

And not just any banjo. A banjo for Hillary. Theresa Kopp drove to Canton all the way from Montgomery, Ala. to see her favorite presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton, who is appearing at the dinner tonight, and to drum up, or rather pluck up, support for her by playing a song she wrote just for Hillary on the banjo.

"We're just the Hil-hil-hillary girls! And she's smart enough for this world!" she sang with a profusion of glee and a family of women from Newton acting as her Hillary back-up singers.

"We support Hillary because my son is in Baghdad right now...I have studied all the candidates and my family has based our decision because Hillary has the best plan to get the troops out of Iraq...She's the only one I trust," said Laura Walley, who made the drive from Newton with her mother, Jeanine Bankston, and her daughter, Anne Henderson.

"Our husbands would be here, too, if they could," said Henderson.

There are certainly a lot of Hillary supporters outside the Canton Multi-Purpose and Equine center, where the event takes place, but even with Kopps' gleeful banjo playing and signs bearing slogans like, "Hillary '08. Please God!", the Hillary supporters can't compete with the Obama fans on volume or signage.

One group of about twenty young girls drove 20 miles together from Yazoo City to show their support for Barack Obama, who by most calculations is slightly ahead of Hillary in the delegate count.

"We support Obama because we think he would be a good choice for president," said Shawanda Williams, of Yazoo City's Pretty in Pink group, "He is the choice for change," she said.

"Education for a change," another Pretty in Pinker chimed in.

All in all, the scene outside the building before the event is far more lively than the one inside it, in which many guests sit at their tables looking bewildered, perhaps wondering what possessed them to show up so early. Outside, there's excitement in the air. Inside, not so much. More like impatience.

Keep watching the Star Blog for more on the Jefferson Jackson Hamer Day Dinner.

- Jennifer Jacob
jjacob@themeridianstar.com