Obama fever grips valley ahead of his Friday visit

 By Michael Tucker, staff writer

They began lining up at 3 p.m. Wednesday, the die-hards who refused to be denied tickets to President Barack Obama's planned town hall-style meeting Friday afternoon.

By 7 a.m. Thursday, nearly 300 people were lined up around Belgrade City Hall, hoping to get a crack at tickets for the event. Most were disappointed, sent away empty-handed when the 150 tickets available at City Hall were gone 10 minutes after the doors opened.

By most accounts, folks in line were congenial, though some late arrivals were a little miffed that the tickets were doled out before the announced 9 a.m. hour, Belgrade Police Chief E.J. Clark said. But City Hall had nothing to do with the early distribution and most residents understood that.

'The city of Belgrade never had control of the tickets,' he said after the tickets were gone. 'We asked all day long yesterday and no one told anybody anything. The only people that were upset were the ones that showed up at nine this morning. We were only the distribution point.'

Staffers from U.S. Sen. Max Baucus' Bozeman office were in charge of distributing the tickets and they made the call to start handing them out at 8 a.m., when they drove into town, Belgrade City Finance Director Marilyn Foltz said. Each person was eligible to receive two passes, which meant the first 75 people in line got a shot at seeing the president.

'They went ahead and started at eight because there were far more people (in line) than they had tickets for,' Foltz said. 'Everybody in the crowd was in a really good mood and a lot of people stayed overnight.'

Clark estimated a total of 500 people showed up for tickets. Many camped overnight.

Belgrade resident Kathie Lehman got off work at 3 a.m., Thursday from her job at Flying J truck stop and promptly found a place in line, still dressed in her work uniform. She was one of the few who got a ticket.

'I was 65th in line,' she said. 'At 5:30 a.m., there were about 135 people in sleeping bags sleeping.'

The arrival of the president was something Lehman said she didn't want to miss. At 50 years of age, she said last November's election was the first time she had ever voted. Lehman was born in Japan and as a result, had dual citizenship until last November.

'I was a Navy brat,' she said. 'I had to give up dual citizenship to vote. I want to see who I voted in. It would be nice to see him because this is the first time I ever voted for a president.'

A co-worker of Lehman's leaned against the car next to her with a ticket in hand. The cutoff point for passes was five people behind her. After serving a volunteer stint in Africa and witnessing first-hand the fervor surrounding Obama's election in that country, she said she wanted to see the man behind the uproar.

'They screamed his name everywhere,' she said. 'I hope he's our future. I think he gives us so much hope.'

But not everyone was so lucky.

Bozeman resident Dan Frost arrived yesterday morning around 9 a.m., way too late to get a ticket. He had the same problem in Bozeman, arriving at that city hall at 7:15 in the morning.

'It's a bummer,' he said. 'I saw a sitting president before and it's a cool thing to see. And not just the president, you get to see all the shenanigans from people on both sides, too.'

That is one of the reasons Bozeman resident Pam Gilette wanted to attend the Friday forum at Gallatin Field. Given the political and social divide that reared its head with recent tea party rallies in Bozeman, Gilette said she wanted to represent a different side of the area. But she arrived too late to do so.

'I wanted to show there's other people here that aren't Nazis or screaming fears over socialism,' she said. 'There's other people here who believe in hope and change.'

Nancy Griffin drove to Belgrade from Ennis, arriving around 4:30 a.m. A business owner, she is interested in learning what the president's health care reform plan will mean for her employees and her pocketbook.

'I want to hear about what they're going to propose and hopefully there will be some detail discussed,' she said.

Others simply wanted to attend Friday's event to see the president in person.

'Being from here you don't get to see the president ' any president,' Belgrade businessman Doug Martin said.

Michael Clark, who was second in line for a ticket, having arrived at City Hall at 3 p.m. Wednesday, echoed that sentiment. 'It's just a unique opportunity,' he said. 'You don't get to see a president often.'

Editor Andy Malby contributed to this report.