SAN DIEGO - Several thousand San Diego State University students were clearly feeling boisterous as they filed into Cox arena on the Southern California campus for a “town hall meeting” with Hillary Clinton at about 12:30 on Friday.

Unfortunately for them, Hillary — borrowing a page from her chronically tardy husband, former President Bill Clinton — was running badly behind. In fact, the candidate, who was scheduled to speak at 1:30, arrived more than an hour late and didn’t greet the throng until shortly before 3 p.m.

While they waited, the good-natured San Diego State students would not allow their Friday afternoon cheer to be diminished and improvised by tearing pages out of their notebooks, fashioning them into paper airplanes, and sailing them around the arena.

The sport quickly took hold and cheers began to greet each airplane as it made a safe landing on the arena floor or crashed into the back of a security guard.

At several points, for no apparent reason and to the puzzlement of jaded, campaign-weary journalists, people in the crowd rose from their seats to do “the wave” for each other.
Clinton was received warmly by the crowd, who applauded her suggestions for a tax break for college students and criticism of student loan companies.

But the event wasn’t without other snafus. San Diego State President Stephen Webber, in thanking Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, mispronounced the mayor’s name as “Villagarosa.”

Two interlopers managed for several minutes to cover Clinton’s hopeful, if generic, “Solutions for America” sign with a much more critical and specific banner of their own (”Nepotist Tyrant Hands Off Iran)” — before they were hustled away by security.

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- Photo Credit: Reuters/Brian Snyder (Clinton speaking to students)