Last night I attended the grand opening of the Barack Obama regional campaign headquarters on Allen Street (which I also wrote about on paprimary.com with more pictures). I've never been to a campaign opening before, but I have been to apartment/house parties here at Penn State, so let's see how the two compare. I think you'll be surprised.

So there are some attributes that go with almost every party at Penn State and most of them also apparently apply to the opening of a presidential campaign headquarters. Music - check. Overcrowded - check. Finger food - check. Sweating because I'm wearing too many layers - check. Vomit - nope. So, four out of five. Oh, and no beer.

Anyway, the event turned out some big names. Well, big names in terms of State College anyway. Borough council members Liz Goreman and Peter Morris were in attendance, but the name that surely brought the people in was Jay Paterno (maybe they were hoping you'd confuse that with Joe). As I wrote on Monday, Jay Paterno is the Penn State QB coach and son of legendary coach Joe Paterno who happens to be a ginormous Republican so it's fairly shocking that he would support a Democrat.

But let's just say the support for Paterno was less than enthusiastic as he and former Penn State wide receiver Kenny Jackson got the least amount of applause as they were introduced. This might have something to do with Paterno's explanation of the HD offense to everyone beforehand. I kid.

It was pointed out during the evening that volunteers were up until late the night before getting the building ready for the grand opening. And earlier in the day I got a story from someone who witnessed it. Well, kinda.

Someone told me that the night of St. Patty's they showed up at some building on Allen Street and registered to vote. "That's the Obama headquarters," I said. "I don't really remember, I was pretty drunk," said the student. And that's the level of commitment from the Obama campaign, registering students to vote even while their ossified.

Check back tomorrow for a review of the Clinton campaign's opening.