In NY, a Modest Venue for a Big Clinton Evening

By Anne E. Kornblut
NEW YORK -- Whatever Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton says on Tuesday night, let there be no mistake about the venue: It is one of her most humble.

Several flights down inside Baruch College on Lexington Avenue in Manhattan, in the windowless, cement-block-walled athletic center home to the "mighty, mighty bearcats," hundreds of reporters began to set up for the event hours ahead of time. The gym (also known as "bearcat den") can hold perhaps a few hundred additional people -- making it extremely small for a Democratic presidential event, more on the scale of a college band venue.

Complicating the situation further is the lack of cell phone service. But at least there are basketball hoops. And lots and lots of mighty, mighty bearcat signs.