It was Thursday when we first got confirmation that Hillary Clinton was coming to York County ... sort of. On the record, her campaign would neither confirm nor deny it. Word on the street was that she wanted to come to York, but her campaign was trying to settle on a venue.

I started making some calls. I called Gene Schenck, vice president of the York Fair. He told me that yes, the Clinton campaign had asked about renting space at the York Expo Center. But apparently last weekend they were having one of their biggest annual events -- a convention of model train collectors. (Hide your daughters!)

Matt O'Brien, general manager of the York Revolution, also told me that the Clinton campaign had called him about renting Sovereign Stadium, but hadn't confirmed anything.

Later in the day, state Rep. Eugene DePasquale, D-West Manchester, returned one of my calls. He confirmed that Clinton would almost certainly be coming to York, once they fixed on a venue. He's a big Clinton supporter, and had been helping them out. He said that even Gov. Rendell, another Clinton supporter, was lending a hand.

Wherever she was going to be, I was pretty psyched. I'd already seen her at an economic roundtable in Harrisburg. But I'd missed a chance to see her at a rally in Harrisburg, and I was curious to see how she would do in front of a big crowd.

As it turned out, the crowd wasn't as big as I'd anticipated.

I got my first inkling of that on Friday. I had the day off, and my colleague (and friend) Teresa Boeckel took over the story on that day. I spoke to her on the phone. She said her main assignment was to find out why they finally settled on a venue -- the corner of Beaver and Market.

It did seem kind of odd. The Center Square at Market and George, one block to the east, seemed like a more natural choice. It's certainly more scenic and spacious. York Mayor John Brenner, an Obama supporter, speculated that the spacious part was the problem. His theory was that when the rally showed up on the TV news, her campaign wanted it to look more densely packed and thus better attended.

I started to suspect he was right, in light of the fact that her campaign didn't offer any better explanation. I talked to some people involved with the city (not sure if it's cool with them if I name them or not, so I hope you don't mind if I don't) who agreed as well.

I wondered why her campaign would think it necessary. Last month in Harrisburg, she filled The Forum past capacity, and that seats about 2,000.

On Saturday, I showed up early. They had the area marked off with metal barricades, and you had to go through a metal detector to go in. When I first got there 90 minutes before the scheduled 3 p.m. start time, I estimated there were only about 200 people.

Later, a campaign spokeswoman said they estimate that a total of 2,500 people showed up. With all due respect to the concept of journalistic objectivity -- no freakin way. In my story, I estimated it at 800 people. And several people who were there later told me they thought that was generous.

I figure that the up-to-the-last-minute uncertainty of the venue played a role. But I also think that the composition of the crowd revealed something.

I get a little uneasy throwing out observations like this as though they're hard statistical data, so please keep it in perspective. But it seems that just about every black York resident I've spoken to in the past couple of months is an Obama supporter. At an appearance by Michelle Obama the week before last, I'd estimate that more than half the capacity crowd at the Strand-Capitol was black.

From talking to the people there to see Hillary Clinton on Saturday, I learned that there were plenty of York residents. But the crowd was overwhelmingly white. I suspect that she just doesn't have the drawing power for York's sizable black population.

And let's face it. Whenever you have an event where you aim to get suburban Yorkers into the city, you have to deal with the "Oh my, do you think we'll be safe?" factor. (Note: I've lived in downtown York for eight years, and the gravest safety threat I've ever faced has been an icy sidewalk.)

For what it's worth, those who were there seemed genuinely enthusiastic about seeing her. I picked up on a definite union presence, with people I recognized from the York-Adams Area Labor Council and a lot of guys walking around in union T-shirts.

Eugene DePasquale first took the stage. He introduced Gov. Rendell, who said a few words and then introduced movie director and actor Rob Reiner.

I'd met Reiner a few years back when he came to York to campaign for John Kerry. One of our photographers later chided me and Mike Argento for kissing up to Reiner by telling him that "This is Spinal Tap," which he directed, is the greatest movie ever made. To which I can only reply that it wasn't kissing up, but a simple statement of fact.

When Clinton took the stage, much of her 30-minute speech dealt with the economy. She got in a reference to Harley Davidson's recent announcement that it would reduce the local workforce by 300.

She also got in what I took to be a subtle dig at Obama, saying that she wasn't there just to get the crowd pumped up, but to talk specific policy. Among the specific policies she mentioned were her plans to take away government benefits for companies that outsource jobs, and to make the government directly responsible for student loans, thus cutting out lending agencies that charge high interest rates.

I thought she did pretty good. Members of the crowd to whom I spoke afterward agreed. She has a lot less flash as an orator than Obama, but she comes across as very direct and forthright.

One more note on the size of the crowd. I don't mean to imply that she doesn't have supporters in York County, because I know she does. It's hard to say precisely how many supporters each candidate has because people only register as "Democrat," not as "Hillary Democrat" or "Barack Democrat." But I'm seeing and hearing from her supporters all the time.

Tomorrow, I guess we'll see if her campaign has better luck getting them out to the polls.