Campaigning in the Big Sky State

By Jonathan Weber, 4-04-08

	Caption: Barack Obama's just-opened campaign office on E. Front St. in Missoula was busy Thursday with hundreds of people coming to get free tickets to his Saturday rally at the University of Montana's Adams Center. The tickets were made available around 7:00 p.m. Wednesday night and were gone by around 10:00 Thursday morning. The venue holds more than 7,000 people. Photo by Kyle Lehman

Whatever the East Coast political pundit class might have to say about the downsides of the extended Democratic presidential primary, I think I can speak for almost everyone in Montana in saying that we’re just delighted it’s played out in a way that’s brought both candidates to our fair state.

The excitement that began with Bill Clinton’s tour of the hi-line early this week will ratchet up a few notches today as Missoula prepares for what’s looking like a huge Obama rally Saturday. Hillary will be here too, doing a high-dollar fund-raiser and, apparently, trying to figure out a public event that won’t look small next to her opponent’s. Then both will be off to Butte for the Democratic Party dinner Saturday night.

Small towns in out-of-the-way places tend to get excited about any celebrity appearances - Elton John and the Rolling Stones both brought Missoula practically to a halt - and some of the presidential fever is simply about that. But it’s also about something much more substantial: real engagement with the political process, and the sense that people’s views will really matter. In the last election cycle, Montana mattered a lot because the razor-close Senate race won by Jon Tester put the Democrats over the top in Congress. Montana progressives hope the Tester coalition of college-town liberals and pragmatic, anti-corporate middle-class voters will make the state a factor again come November.

Conventional wisdom holds that Obama will sweep the Montana Democratic primary on June 3, just as he dominated in Idaho and Colorado and Utah and Washington. Western voters don’t much like Washington insiders, and Hillary Clinton has always had especially high negatives in the region. But tomorrow, the conventional wisdom won’t matter, because voters will have the opportunity to see and hear for themselves.

We’re bringing the kids to the Obama rally - it could literally be their first and last chance to see a possible future president in their home town. It doesn’t happen often enough, but sometimes Democracy can be a lot of fun.