AARON ONTIVEROZ/WTE Audience members give Sen. Barack Obama a standing ovation as he takes the stage for a speech at the University of Wyoming Friday. BRANDON QUESTER/WTE Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Hillary Clinton campaigns during a stop in Cheyenne Friday afternoon. Her visit to the Laramie County Community College gymnasium brought more than 1,500 people.

CHEYENNE -- The stage was set for the honored guest.

The climbing wall was pushed off to one side. The chairs and bleachers were arranged in a circle to create the feel of a town hall, giant U.S. flags and all.

Bars of bright lights were aimed at the center -- a small stage containing a stool and bottle of water.

People young and old lined up outside the main entrance to the Physical Education Building at Laramie County Community College. Women were probably in the majority, though men were well represented.

To get in, they emptied their pockets for security guards at the door and stood in a T, arms out, while guards waved hand-held metal detectors over their bodies.

They took their seats and waited for nearly three hours. Upbeat rock music played on the speakers; many of the songs were by Bruce Springsteen. If they needed a restroom, they had to go back outside and use the portable toilet.

So it began: Democratic presidential candidate and U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton was coming to Cheyenne to speak for 90 minutes.

Though this visit probably wouldn’t bring any transformative moments to the 2008 presidential race -- no tears, no shocking revelations -- it would undoubtedly live large in the memories of those in attendance and in the political lore of Wyoming.

Clinton hoped it would turn into caucus votes today.

The race for the Democratic nomination has become a nail-biter, with Clinton and Barack Obama fighting for every delegate they can get in today’s Wyoming caucuses.

The last time presidential candidates courted Wyoming Democrats, they say, it was 1960.

Friday, a crowd of more than 1,500 was hoping to see history in the making.

As Wyoming’s former secretary of state, Kathy Karpan, told them: “In 2008, Wyoming Democrats will give momentum to the first woman president.”

Of course, that’s still a maybe. But Karpen drew wild cheers and waving signs by saying it.

Marcella Romero, a lifelong Cheyenne resident, was a little girl when she was taken to hear John F. Kennedy speak in 1960.

Friday morning, she was one of the first to stand in line at LCCC.

“In my lifetime, I’d like to say a woman was our president,” Romero said.

Hours later, when Clinton entered the arena dressed in a royal blue suit and waving, Romero raised her camera in the air and snapped away. But her hands were trembling so badly so she couldn’t get a good shot.

Afterward, Clinton did take time to meet the people. Then, Romero got close enough to have one of her Hillary for President signs autographed. She said she would save it for her kids.

Some arrived firmly in favor of Clinton. Others said they hadn’t made up their minds, but they hoped hearing Clinton would help.

Marie Brown turned around in her place in line to speak up: “I think qualifications are more important than inspiration,” comparing Clinton to Obama.

Helen Flores Montez, 80, wore a Clinton sticker in her white hair. She admires Clinton because the former first lady is walking boldly into men’s work.

But that’s something Montez always has admired in a woman. That’s because she has been there herself.

When Montez was working in housekeeping at the University of Wyoming years ago, she was told that she couldn’t make as much as the male custodians.

“They told us we weren’t the breadwinners,” Flores Montez said. “Isn’t that goofy?”

So she became a custodian herself. But they didn’t make it easy for her. When it was time to clear the snow from the walk at the Education Building, somehow the plow disappeared, and they handed her a shovel.

“It would be a dream come true if I could call her commander in chief,” she said.

Clinton herself was about 45 minutes late; she was flying in from a campaign stop in Mississippi, a media coordinator said.

Much of the senator’s speech went along the national lines: health care, ending the war in Iraq and the “unfunded mandate” of No Child Left Behind.

But she began her talk as one might expect from a candidate visiting the Cowboy State hoping to be the first woman president: She pointed to Wyoming’s place in the history of U.S. women.

Women here could vote well before the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was passed, Clinton said. And in 1924, Nellie Tayloe Ross was elected governor of Wyoming -- the first woman in Wyoming and the U.S.

She also praised Wyoming’s leadership for its “pioneering work for clean coal.” This week, Gov. Dave Freudenthal signed into law two carbon-dioxide capture bills.

“Because if we don’t start working to set up a regulatory framework -- and you’re the first state that’s done it -- that says, ‘OK, all of this talk about carbon sequestration and getting to clean coal, it sounds good but we haven’t done it,’” Clinton said.

“We ought to approach that and every other aspect of energy independence with the same commitment we did the space race.”

Her office also sent a news release Friday titled “Hillary Clinton’s Solutions for Wyoming.”

It said she would appoint a White House adviser for the Intermountain West who would report directly to her and “ensure that the challenges facing the West are a priority for federal policy.”

Her attacks on Obama were minimal, though she appealed for votes by saying she was the candidate if you “prefer solutions over sound bites.”

“For me, you see, when the cameras are gone, the lights off, that’s when it matters who’s in the Oval Office,” she said.