CONWAY — Carroll County supporters greeted Jill Biden, wife of Vice President Joe Biden, warmly during her quick campaign stop at the Obama for America offices on Main Street on Friday.

The greeting started with a hug from Dorothy Solomon, who, as a county commissioner in a very Republican region, is the only Democrat among the commissioners and the members of the county delegation.

Solomon introduced the second lady, noting her commitment to military families and women's issues.

“This election is going to be close, we know that,” Biden said, asking the 80 or so in the close quarters of the office to “work just a little bit harder.”

It was the third stop of the day for Biden, who the day before had been in her community college classroom in northern Virginia, teaching English. Her day in the Granite State began mid-morning in Concord, then an extended stop in Berlin, where she met with about 50 supporters and had lunch at Tea Birds Café & Restaurant on Main Street.

She was headed to Laconia after Conway.

“I expected it to be a little bit cooler,” Biden told the packed house. She said there are two choices in this election, reflecting, “their way or our way.”

She stressed the importance of education, saying that the administration had doubled Pell grants, and had made community colleges the cornerstone of education policy. Community colleges, she said, partner with businesses, “so it means jobs.”

She said President Obama kept his word and got the country out of Iraq, and will get out of Afghanistan by 2014.

She recounted how her son, Beau, who serves with the Delaware Army National Guard, landed in New Hampshire when he returned from his deployment in Iraq. Her son, she said, was touched by the rows and rows of veterans waiting for the returning soldiers.

“Don't cry, or I will cry,” she told a woman in the audience who was wiping a tear from her eye. Biden took a breath, then continued, saying the veterans gave the soldiers phones so that they could call home

Speaking of women's issues, she said, ”We fought so hard, those of us in my generation, for Roe vs. Wade.” She said younger women need to know the history of the struggle for equal rights.

Evan Lucy of Conway, an independent voter, said he voted for Obama and 2008 and was going to vote for him in the November election.

“I'd vote for him a third time if they hadn't put a restriction on it.”

Conversing before Biden arrived, Barbara Duquet of Jackson and her friend couldn't agree on where they will go hiking on Saturday, Tuckerman Ravine or Doublehead, but they did agree they would be voting for Obama.

- - - - - - - -

Sara Young-Knox may be reached at syoungknox@newstote.com.