College Park Prepares For President Obama's Town Hall Meeting
COLLEGE PARK, Md. (WJZ)—The president will go back to school Friday, holding a town hall meeting at the University of Maryland. Thursday hundreds lined up in College Park for the chance to ask the president a question.
Meghan McCorkell was there.
The economy is sure to be the hot topic when President Barack Obama holds that town hall meeting at Ritchie Coliseum.
How can we turn the economy around? What jobs is he creating? Where is my job? These are some of the questions ticketholders WJZ spoke to asked.
The topic of jobs is sure to overwhelm the conversation.
"I would ask him how he's going to help all of us that are unemployed, looking for jobs, especially us recent graduates," said Matthew Esqueu.
"It's personal for me because I think it hit our age group worst, young black people. We're doing bad when it comes to getting jobs," said John Munson, who is attending the town hall.
Hundreds camped out for a chance to hear what the president has to say about the economy Friday. Many slept on the sidewalk just to be in the audience.
Ritchie Coliseum only holds about 1,200 people, and some of those tickets will go to VIP guests.
This is the president's third visit to the University of Maryland. His last was in 2009.
"We are honored the first time he came here as a candidate and that he still considers us a place for him to come to get a message out," said Millree Williams, of the University of Maryland. "That's really important to us."
Everyone there is eager to hear that message.
"Giving hope to the American people that we'll get this behind us and turn this around. I think that's what a lot of us want to hear," said Lawrence Leak, who is attending the town hall meeting.
This will be the eighth town hall meeting the president has hosted this year.
The president will also take questions from the White House Twitter feed.
