Watch video coverage of Hillary Clinton's Missoula appearance.About 1,500 supporters were on their feet in Neptune Aviation's hangar to welcome Clinton. She was campaigning in Montana on the heels of her husband, former President Bill Clinton - he traveled across the Big Sky State early last week - and her Democratic competitor, Barack Obama, who staged a full-house rally at the Adams Center on Saturday.
Kids ran around the back of the slurry bomber hangar. Audience members sat about 10 feet from the senator. Clinton spoke for about 45 minutes, then fielded questions from the audience. When the microphone failed, people just shouted out.
Harvey Brandt, 65, of Alaska, volunteered at the Obama rally. On Sunday, he displayed a Hillary sticker on his jacket.
“I've heard all the stump speeches before, but it's fun to be around political rallies,” said Brandt, who is in town visiting family. “I'm intrigued with politics. I'm an observer of the political process.”
Each candidate held events that played best to their personalities, said Craig Wilson, a Montana State University-Billings professor and longtime political pollster.
“(Clinton) knows policy and can hold her own,” said Wilson, who added that's why she excels at the question-and-answer format. “She's more substantive.”
Obama, on the other hand, throws rallies that feel more like rock concerts, he said. The Illinois senator attracts a younger crowd and has a “black-preacher, strident” speaking style that inspires and excites.
At Obama's rally Saturday, the audience was asked to take out their cell phones and send a text that read “OBAMA” for all the latest updates from the campaign. Clinton, on the other hand, asked those at the town hall meeting to sit down so everyone could see.
Her gathering at Missoula International Airport brought an end to a whirlwind of political rallies in Montana by both candidates in the ever-so-close race for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination. Both Obama and Clinton spoke Saturday evening at the state Democratic Party's Mansfield-Metcalf dinner in Butte.
The candidates are chasing the support of Montana's 17 delegates and eight superdelegates. Two of Montana's superdelegates, Lewis and Clark County Commissioner Ed Tinsley and former U.S. Sen. John Melcher of Missoula, have already come out in support of Obama.
So far, the others haven't announced their preferences. And the votes of the 17 at-large delegates will be decided by voters on June 3.
A long line formed outside the airport hangar just before 8 a.m. Sunday, when the doors opened for Clinton's gathering. Diane Keefauver, 56, of Missoula, had already been there for four hours, sleeping in the car with her two dogs. She wasn't taking any chances with getting a good seat.
“I was so excited to be here, even my dogs could feel it,” said Keefauver, who was impressed with the work Clinton did as first lady. “The first thing she does is roll up her sleeves and work on health care instead of passing out tea.”
No one was turned away from Sunday's event.
Mike East, 58, of Missoula, waited patiently but eagerly for Clinton to arrive.
In 1996, during Bill Clinton's presidency, East - who has epilepsy - worked a part-time job at McDonald's but had no health insurance. He wrote Hillary Clinton, who was as passionate about the subject then as now, about some of the obstacles to affordable insurance coverage.
“She wrote back,” he said. “I've been a Hillary fan ever since.”
Today, East is on Medicare and Medicaid, which paid for brain surgery that practically cured his epilepsy. He now works full time.
Clinton arrived 40 minutes late, following a brunch fundraiser at the Hilton Garden Inn. Tickets to the fundraiser were a minimum $250. An estimated 350 people attended.
Later, she joked about her tardiness: “Do you know how much longer it takes me to get ready in the morning than my two opponents?”
Missoula County Commissioner Jean Curtiss and Senate Majority Leader Carol Williams - the first woman in Montana elected to that position - introduced Clinton and emphasized the state's rich history of supporting women in politics.
Montana elected the first female congresswoman, Jeannette Rankin, even before women had the right to vote. Missoula County was home to the first all-female county commission.
The “Rocky” theme song blared from the speakers as Clinton took the stage. Clinton recently likened herself to Rocky Balboa, the scrappy underdog boxer depicted in the 1976 Oscar-winning movie and its sequels.
“Who says men won't vote for a woman?” Clinton said. “They elected Jeannette Rankin.”
She spoke alongside a P2V slurry bomber outfitted by Neptune for fighting wildfires, hitting on issues such as health care, alternative energy, the home-foreclosure crisis, middle-class tax breaks, education, foreign relations and others. She took questions from audience members about the war in Iraq, immigration and social services.
Ten-year-old Rachel Price stood in the back of the crowd crying when she couldn't see over the adults standing in front of her. The Stevensville fourth-grader is several years away from casting a vote, but knows who she'd choose if she could.
“If I could vote, I'd vote five million times for Hillary because she's a girl and I think she'd make a good president,” Price said. “Her husband was president and maybe she learned from him.”
Sunday's rally made all the difference for Ray Carlisle, 61, of Missoula. He was exactly the type of undecided voter to whom Clinton was trying to appeal.
Clinton asked the audience to think about choosing a candidate as if they were hiring them for a job.
“Suddenly, her experience makes so much difference,” Carlisle said. “She was so specific in the things she said. It makes a difference seeing her in person.”
Kristi Forsberg, of Stevensville, agreed.
The 52-year-old credited Obama for his speaking skills, but said he only identified America's problems, whereas Clinton actually gave solutions and outlined a plan for getting the job done, she said.
“She gave an answer on everything I thought was important.”
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