CLEMSON — Secret Service snipers. A packed amphitheatre. Bold promises. Despite frigid weather, Sen. Barack Obama’s Friday appearance at Clemson University was a charged affair.

On the eve of the South Carolina Democratic Presidential Primary, Obama delivered a centrist message.

“Americans are not as divided as out politics would suggest,” Obama said. “Everywhere I’ve been, people have stood up and said, ‘We are ready for something new. We are ready to write a new chapter in history.’ Together, there is no problem we can’t solve and no destiny we can’t fulfill.”

Obama’s “come together” tone is the hallmark of his campaign. However, details of his platform might be ambiguous to casual politicos. On Thursday, Obama clarified (and quantified) several stances.

If elected, the candidate vowed to get American troops out of Iraq in 2009 and introduce socialized health care by the end of his first term. In addition, Obama said he would push for a yearly increase in the minimum wage; a $4,000 semester college credit for community service; and a minimum fuel efficiency of 40-mile-per-gallon.

Perhaps as an attempt to sell his electability, Obama, 46, boasted of drawing record numbers of youth voters in the Iowa primary, which he won. He also joked about disgruntled Republicans whispering their support.

In addition, Obama decried lobbyists, claiming they had not contributed to his campaign. He also emphasized that current President George W. Bush would not be on the 2008 ballot.

“The era of Scooter Libby justice and Karl Rove politics will finally be over next year,” Obama said. “But you don’t want just be against something, you want to be for something.”

Around 3,000 people packed the CU Amphitheatre — and endured a two-hour wait — to hear Obama’s oration.

Michael Parks, a Clemson freshman from Matthews, N.C., attended Obama’s rally looking for answers on domestic issues.

“Policies in Iraq are important, but we have a lot of problems here at home,” Parks said. “I think socialized health care is an important issue. I think the economy is an important issue.”

Another Clemson student, junior Ryan Greene, mentioned global warming as a key concern.

“I think Obama’s got a great plan,” Greene said. “Instead of separating the parties, he seems to want a joint effort. As opposed to every other candidate that has come through here, this is the most amount of people that showed up.”

So far this month, Clemson has hosted stumping from Democratic candidate John Edwards as well as Republicans John McCain and Mike Huckabee.

Joe Stewart, chair of the Clemson political science department, said the S.C. primary was paramount for Obama.

“It’s a chance to show some strength if he can win South Carolina,” Stewart said. “He and Clinton have gone back and forth and this is Edwards’ home state. At least half of the Democratic primary electorate is made up of African Americans. If we can demonstrate strength here, that will demonstrate he’s got that kind of pulling power.”

However, Stewart cautioned regardless of the outcome in S.C., the race for the Democratic nomination was still young.

Predictably, a majority of the attendees Friday were student-age. And many of the topics Obama addressed, like college loan debt and environmental concerns, were well suited for a nubile throng. However, Obama also conjured images accessible to older voters: seniors unable to afford medicine, long-time employees laid off from, parents of fallen soldiers.

At one point, Obama made reference to a term used by civil rights icon Martin Luther King, Jr.: “the fierce urgency of now.”

“We are at a defining moment in our history,” Obama said. “Our planet is at war. Our planet is in peril. The dream that so many generations fought for feels like it’s slowly slipping away. I believe there is such a thing as being too late. That hour is almost upon us.”