Supporters Line Up for Obama Tickets

Supporters of President Obama waited on a line that stretched nearly a block long along E. Third Street in Bethlehem Tuesday morning, waiting to get free tickets to see first lady Michelle Obama.

The first lady is scheduled to make a campaign appearance at ’s Johnston Hall on Thursday night.

Tickets for the event were being distributed at three locations Tuesday morning, including the Obama For America office in Easton, .

In South Bethlehem, the line formed outside the campaign office at 13 E. Third St., a few doors from New Street, and by 11 a.m. had stretched nearly to Adams Street.

Tickets for the event were still available as of Tuesday afternoon, according to a spokeswoman for the Obama campaign.

“I think she’s an excellent role model for girls,” said Rosalind Lucien of Moore Township, who brought her 13-year-old daughter Noelle with her to get tickets.

She said the first lady’s Princeton University education and her success as a mother is proof that her daughter can accomplish anything she can set her mind to.

“I had to be here,” said Jacqueline Darling of Bethlehem, who stood on-line with a cane waiting for tickets. “This might be the only time in my life that I get a chance to do something like this.”

She said she is an admirer of Michelle Obama for her work in trying to improve the health of children.

“I think this is so exciting for the community,” said Beverly Bradley, president of Cops ‘n’ Kids Lehigh Valley, a program to encourage child literacy and positive relationships with police.

Obama’s presence in the White House has been important to lifting America’s standing in the eyes of the rest of the world, said Bradley, who recently participated as a lecturer in Lee Iacocca’s Global Village, an internship program for more than 100 international students at .

A majority of those students identifies Obama’s election as one of the greatest moments in the country’s history, considering its long, troubled history with race relations, Bradley said.

“I didn’t think I’d see it in my lifetime,” she said. Bradley said she remains a supporter of President Obama, despite some continued struggles in the country’s economy.

“The economy is in a very difficult place, but he didn’t create that,” Bradley said. “It was a long time in coming. We owe him the benefit of seeing what he can accomplish.”

The idea that the president is not to blame for the country’s economic troubles was echoed by many in the waiting crowd.

“If Congress would have behaved intelligently, they could be getting more done,” said Deni Thurman-Eyer of Bethlehem. “He’s being sabotaged.”