EUGENE, Ore. - Glasses perched on his nose, Ed Becker read "Botany of Desire" and sat back in a chair he tought he'd never see again.

"I figured there'd be a lot of people here to see Bill," Becker said. "I brought the worst chair that I could find because I'd probably wind up having to leave it."

The line to hear former President Bill Clinton speak started at 4 p.m. at the stairs of the ballroom in the Erb Memorial Union on the University of Oregon campus. By the time Becker and his wife arrived at 6 p.m., the line was down the hall and just about out the door. Two hours later, the line reached down 13th Avenue almost to Agate Street. Organizers eventually relocated the event outdoors to accomodate the crowd.

Vera Vos sat on a blanket next to Becker, passing the time by studying for her recertification exam as a nurse practitioner. Vos saw the lines for Barack Obama last Friday and warned Becker, her husband, to be prepared.

Hence the chair.

"For the record, I did offer this chair to her first, but she declined," Becker said.

"I'm still not sure whether I'm going to go Hillary or Obama," said Vos, who remains undecided with a little over a week to vote.

Obama "offers us a chance to be different," she said. "I don't know if us humans are up to it. If we're not ready, it's not going to be good. It's now or never.

"Hillary is similar, but she's not givng that message," Vos said. She said Clinton focuses on specifics, whereas she finds Obama's message to be more broad and "global."

"If they could get together - I think two halves make the whole," Vos said.

"I don't believe mathematically that Hillary Clinton has a chance, although I'd love to see her as president," Becker said.

"The best thing about this is the excitement and the interest that it's generated," Vos said. "I'm really looking at Chelsea. What an amazing woman she's become thanks to both parents."