Hundreds Swarm Herndon Middle School for Clinton, McAuliffe

More than two hours before the scheduled start time of the event, hundreds were queuing up in a line that stretched around the corner to see Terry McAuliffe and former president Bill Clinton speak at Herndon Middle School Monday evening.

Countless officials turned out for the event as well, including Delegates, Congressmen, Senators, County Supervisors and Councilmembers from all over the region.

Fairfax County Chairman Sharon Bulova was one of the first to address the audience from the stage, telling fellow Democrats, "We're in a good place—scratch that, a great place. The stars have aligned for us," and asking everyone to sign up for volunteer shifts on McAuliffe's behalf to encourage voters over the next seven to eight days before the election.

Former Delegate Jim Dillard, a former Fairfax County teacher and principal, also spoke on McAuliffe's behalf, emphasizing the fact that he has been a longtime Republican but supports McAuliffe over his opponent, Republican attorney general Ken Cuccinelli.

Dillard criticized Cuccinelli's support of diverting education funds for private and charter schools over public schools, and saying there was no way Cuccinelli could pay for his promises without either raising taxes or cutting education spending.

Congressmen Gerry Connolly (D-11th) said it was high time voters "make history" and "break the jinx" of having a Republican-run government in Virginia.

"The whole country is watching Virginia this year," he said, saying voters had a choice between "pragmatic" with McAuliffe and "making a point" with Cuccinelli.

"We need to win," he said. "And to help us win, I got my Republican friends on the other side of the aisle in Congress to shut down the government for 16 days."

Senator Mark Warner, former governor of Virginia himself, had the pleasure of introducing Terry McAuliffe and Bill Clinton, calling Clinton a inspirational leader.

"Under Bill Clinton, this country had a surplus. Under Bill Clinton, this country was the envy of the rest of the world."

When Terry McAuliffe took the stand, he emphasized what he called the biggest platforms of his campaign—transportation solutions, improving education and creating jobs.

Regarding transportation, McAuliffe quoted a statistic that says the average Northern Virginian spends 67 hours per year in their car in traffic, leaving billions in productivity and economic opportunity on the table.

"And it shouldn't take parents two to three hours if they want to go to their child's softball game," he said.

McAuliffe said he supported Gov. Bob McDonnell's "transportation compromise" bill.

"It wasn't perfect, but we couldn't wait any longer [to address the problem]," he said, saying he supports "getting more people off the roads and into mass transit."

McAuliffe encouraged voters in the audience to elect the entire Democratic ticket into office, saying everyone on it "views bipartisan cooperation as a necessity" and stressing that "transportation and education are not bipartisan issues."

Finally, McAuliffe promised that, while he is governor, there would be absolutely no cuts to education.

Bill Clinton closed out the night's event.

In his speech, Clinton also emphasized the importance of bipartisanship—saying the Democratic ticket was the only one who put it in high priority—and touched upon the difference between a "philosopher" and "an ideolog;" between philosophy and ideology.

"Ideologs already have the truth, and they are impervious to the facts that are inconsistent with that truth," he said, referring to how Cuccinelli recently sued a UVA professor over his climate change research.

Clinton said the recent government shutdown and near-miss over defaulting on the nation's debt ceiling had damaged the country's reputation with the rest of the world severely. He said Republicans "should not be making steam come out of people's ears," but rather "lightbulbs coming on in their heads."

He said "the orgy of fighting in Congress" was bad not only for our economy, but for the whole world's.

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