Phelps County, where Rolla is located, went for Bush over Kerry by 63-36, so it's about as 'red' an area as you'll find.  I don't think he has to win these areas, but if he can get it to 45-55 he carries the state.  I thought this was not going to happen, but after this swing through Springfield, Lebanon, Rolla and Union today, I'm not so sure.

Roughly 2,000 people (town is 16,000) stood in the sweltering sun yesterday to obtain the tickets.  They had to turn away over 600.  

My wife and I sat about 10 rows from Obama, in a gymnasium on the campus of Missouri S&T (formerly UMR).  It was hot, but the local Democratic party did a great job with handing out water, and the campaign had rented air conditioning units on trailers that vented into the building.  

The crowd was a good mix of college students, elderly, white collar types, and a few bubbas.  I'm not active locally so I was surprised to see who was there.

Local speakers included the Carnahans (Robin and mother Jean), local political powerhouse family, and then Sen. Claire McCaskill (born at our hospital), Jay Nixon (next governor of Missouri) and Obama entered.  Raucous crowd, great enthusiasm.  

He did his standard stumpy type speech, obviously wanting to emphasize the economy this week.  He added the new wrinkle of a skilled push-back on McCain's latest attack ads, saying, "he's spending a lot of time talking about me, that's because they've got nothing to offer themselves..."  This was well received, he needs to keep it up.  He does it in a way that is disarming, hard to see him as whining when he's smiling.

Opening it up to a few questions after about 20 minutes, he got the usual mix of odd ball, substantive, the personal.  He is good in this format, more so than most realize.  He doesn't just give lofty, pretty speeches, he can answer on the fly in a way that ties it back to his central themes.  He need not cede this format to McCain.

My wife and I got close enough to shake his hand, but alas, just too many in front of us.  

Takeaways:

1. If scheduling allows, he should do more of these events, it impressed the heck out of people here, even those who won't vote for him.  Even a few more hundred votes per rural county plus good turnout in the big cities could swing the state.  We're within a couple of points now as it is.
   
2. It's really, really hot here in late July, but Obama looked cool throughout.  He's also much thinner in person, very slightly built.  
   
3. I'll let myself get a little more carried away with his candidacy.  I'm still jaded, be he IS good.