Fighting Fire with Bill

ABC News’ Talal Al-Khatib Reports: The Clinton campaign has been aggressively courting college students in the past few weeks with their most popular surrogate – former President Bill Clinton.

On a cold night on the eve of the Virginia Democratic primary, students at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia came out in droves for of a glimpse of former President Bill Clinton.

Many ardent supporters – students, volunteers and community residents armed with banners and covered with Hillary Clinton stickers – gathered to support their candidate. Others were there just to watch the show.

A few students seemed disappointed that Senator Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., didn’t show up in person. "Basically, I came out to see Bill, not Hillary," Bridget Graham, a sophomore.

The former president has been to campuses across the country to court young voters on behalf of his wife, as has their daughter Chelsea Clinton. Bill Clinton has been drawing huge crowds of college-aged students — many who were under six years old when he was inaugurated.

Recently at the University of Denver, Clinton drew in a crowd of 4000. He nearly doubled that when he appeared in Davis, California.

Last night in Virginia, however, not everyone in the audience was a Clinton supporter. One GMU senior walked around displaying a sign that read, "Hillary Said Yes to War," inciting an argument with a few dedicated Clinton loyalists. Another student interrupted Clinton’s speech yelling, "Obama!"

The crowd – some of whom had gathered as early as 3 pm- filled three floors of the atrium of GMU’s George W. Johnson Center.

The size of the Clinton’s audience varied depending on who and when you asked. The campaign stated that there were around 4000 people in attendance. The student information desk had the number closer to 1500. One university official estimated the crowd size at around 3000 people.

Clinton was late, running on "Clinton Time," as it was known in the White House during his administration. He finally bounded on stage about forty-five minutes later than expected. He was so late, that before he even warmed up on stage, he was losing his audience. The crowd began to recede and file toward the exits, leaving flyers and pledge cards in their wake. When one GMU sophomore was asked why he was leaving early, he replied, "Homework."

Despite some early departures, a throng of supporters stayed behind to hear President Clinton talk about his wife’s candidacy, touching on issues such as health care.

One international student, Loni Nath, studying for her master’s degree in computer science seemed to respond to the former President’s discussion of the costs of education.

"That is very expensive, especially for us, because we’re international students. I know the kind of expense that I’ve gone through to study."

Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., visited the GMU campus a little more than a year ago and so comparisons to the Clinton appearance were inevitable. Students who were able to attend both events were in disagreement over which one drew a larger crowd.

"I’m not gonna vote for Hillary, but I love Bill Clinton," said Max Wolfson, who is no relation to Clinton’s communications director Howard Wolfson.

Wolfson’s friend, a freshman government major, immediately countered, "Well, I’m sold."

Clinton won over another undecided voter — an international student not eligible to vote.

"I mean, I’m not actually legally allowed to vote here, but still, yeah,” Loni Nath said.

ABC News’ Sarah Amos contributed to this report.