By Nancy Benac
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON — A Democratic president comes to town, dropping the curtain on years of Republican rule. At a time of widespread dissatisfaction, many Americans invest high hopes in the incoming administration's ability to make things better.

Barack Obama's ascendance is a deja vu moment for many of those who remember Bill Clinton's arrival in town 16 years ago. Perhaps for none is this more true than for the Faces of Hope, a collection of 50-plus ordinary Americans whom Clinton met over the course of his presidential campaign and later brought to Washington for his inauguration, like Cinderellas to the ball.

They are older now, wiser, and in some cases more cynical. Several have died, many more have suffered financial, medical or personal setbacks. Most were Democrats whose hopes are bound to be more easily stirred by another Democrat moving into the White House.

Their initial gathering in 1993 may have been dreamed up as something of a political gimmick, but Clinton brought them together again for a 1995 reunion, and all these years later they remain Faces of Hope — optimistic that the next president can improve the country's situation. At the same time, though, they shake their heads at the enormity of the challenges ahead.

A look at six Faces of Hope, who are hopeful once again.

"WE'RE HOME AGAIN"

Alta Bardsley was fixing a casserole of creamed corn, Velveeta cheese and hash browns when she got the call offering her an all-expenses-paid trip to Clinton's inauguration. Bardsley, then 53, had caught the presidential candidate's attention when she demonstrated a recycling program at the Quaker Oats plant where she worked in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Bardsley thinks of the Clinton inaugural as a "giant family reunion" for the nation. "It was like we were welcome to Washington, D.C., again. It was our town, the country's town." With Obama, she says, "I'm sure it will be that way again. We're home again. We're welcome in our capital. We have a man who's going to care about America." Bardsley, 69 now, has had her own share of hardships over the past 16 years — an "economic downslide in my own life," as she describes it. She retired in 2000, and struggles with a congenital medical condition that requires her to wear leg braces. It's hard to pay her medical bills, and she shares a home with a divorcee to split household costs. As for Obama, she says, "I still have a smile on my face from the election." Her experience as a Face of Hope, she says, "made me more conscious of what needed to be done and what needed to be said."

"MAYBE WE'LL NEVER DO THAT WELL AGAIN"

For years, Bob Shannon coaxed championship football teams out of a crumbling inner-city high school in East St. Louis, Ill. His winning philosophy drew the admiration of Clinton during a 1992 campaign stop. But a few years later, when Shannon tried to blow the whistle on a corrupt school athletic director, he was forced out for speaking up. "Life is not always fair, but I was able to move on," he says matter-of-factly. Shannon, now 64 and retired, found other coaching jobs, and produced more champions. He remembers his trip to Clinton's inauguration as once-in-a-lifetime experience, and the start of an era of prosperity. Whatever Clinton's failings, he said, "We did a lot better in that era. Maybe we'll never do that well again." Still, Shannon says, Obama already has overcome huge obstacles to win election as the first black president. Shannon, who is black, was skeptical that Obama could persuade white Americans to accept him. "It was almost miraculous," he says, "like somebody playing football, down 50-to-nothing at the half and coming back to win."

"A TONIC OF HOPE"

New Yorker Danny Kronenfeld led a homeless outreach program and was invited to sit next to Clinton at a pre-inaugural luncheon for the Faces of Hope. He said at the time that it was "too early to be cynical" about the administration's future. Now 76, Kronenfeld still works a few days a week helping a youth development institute in New York, and he still thinks it's too early to be cynical. Whatever the unfulfilled expectations of the Clinton administration because of the Monica Lewinsky scandal, Kronenfeld says, "we came out after the eight years better than we went in." Now, once again, he says, "I think people that I deal with day-to-day have been given a tonic of hope, really." Kronenfeld took part in the 1963 march on Washington, and worked on early anti-poverty programs and youth mobilization efforts. He says of Obama: "I never really thought I'd live to see a black man elected president. There was a tremendous kind of next-step feeling" to his election.

"I WAS VERY YOUNG AND IDEALISTIC"

Roger Kuttan was an 18-year-old college graduate known as the Wall Street "whiz kid" when he came to Clinton's attention and became a celebrated guest at the inauguration. "I was very young and idealistic," Kuttan remembers. "I have kind of lost a lot of that." But Kuttan, now 34, still feels the stirrings of optimism as Obama prepares to take office. "When they actually called it for Obama I just started sobbing. It brings back all those memories of hope and looking forward to a lot of change and improving." Kuttan, who lives in Alexandria, Va., says the Faces of Hope experience helped inspire him to go into public service. He helped found the nonprofit National Education Foundation, which works with disadvantaged school districts to offer students online training in math and science.

"I DON'T THINK FOUR YEARS IS GOING TO BE LONG ENOUGH"

Truth be told, Teann Scoggins would prefer that it was Hillary Rodham Clinton taking over the Oval Office. She worries that Obama doesn't have enough experience, and finds reassurance in his choice of a longtime senator, Joe Biden, for vice president. Scoggins, a 56-year-old retiree from York, Pa., was selected as one of Clinton's Faces of Hope after working with the Gores during the campaign and switching from the Republican to Democratic Party to vote for the Democratic ticket. She is disabled and has lupus, but still manages to do volunteer work raising money for church and community groups. "I do wish him well," she says of Obama. "He's inherited a very difficult situation and, truthfully, I don't think four years is going to be long enough to correct most of what he's going to inherit."

"I HATE TO SEE ANYBODY LOSE THEIR JOB"

Bill Brierton, a 69-year-old retiree from Pittsburgh, had worked 24 years at Teledyne Columbia Steel before he was laid off in 1990. His story became part of a Clinton campaign ad, and he ended up as one of the Faces of Hope. He later got work as a records clerk at a prison. Now, Brierton listens to stories about the problems facing struggling auto workers in Detroit and it all sounds so familiar. "I just hate to see anybody lose their job, because I know what it's like," he said. If Obama is able to deliver half of what he's talked about, Brierton says, "I'd be a happy camper." In particular, Brierton hopes Obama will be able to deliver health care reforms where Clinton failed. Clinton, he says, "gave it his best shot," but the opposition was too strong. "The people at the bottom of the ladder are always looking up and they're hoping maybe this time it'll go, after Obama gets sworn in," he said. Brierton remembers sitting across from Clinton at a pre-inaugural luncheon at the Folger Shakespeare Library and telling a server, "That guy across from me might be on a diet, but I'm not. Keep it coming to me." That drew a big smile from the president-elect.