For the first time since winning the presidency, President Barack Obama is coming to the golden state, and Tuesday, thousands waited for that golden ticket.
He's hosting a town hall meeting at the Orange County Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa on Wednesday afternoon, but tickets were to be handed out starting 10 a.m. Tuesday. People began lining up for tickets on Monday night.
"It's been like a party out here. It's Obama City," said Obama supporter Gail Thomas.
A second town hall has been scheduled for Thursday in Los Angeles at the Miguel Contreras Learning Complex. Residents have until noon Tuesday to register for an online lottery for a chance to win a pair of tickets to the event. Doors open at 11 a.m. for that town hall. Names will be picked at random, and everyone selected will be allowed to bring one guest.
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"I want to ask him what he's going to do for my generation going into this bad economy. What's he going to do to get us out of it?" said Lindsay Tackett, who waited in line for tickets in the OC since late Monday night.
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The Tonight Show with Jay Leno
President Barack Obama will appear on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" on Thursday. According to a statement from NBC, Obama will talk about his economic plan. Will he be funny?
"As funny as the times allow," said a White House official.
Tickets for the show are "available the day of the show only at the NBC Ticket Box, located at NBC in Burbank, Calif. The NBC Ticket Box opens at 8 a.m. All available tickets are distributed to the public on a first come, first-served two tickets per person basis," according to NBC.com.
The visit to the show "marks the first appearance of a sitting president on a late-night talk show," according to the statement.
The president will also tour the Edison International Vehicle Electrics Plant in Pomona on Thursday.
For those lucky enough to already have their ticket-in-hand, the experience, they say, will be once-in-a-lifetime.
"I'm very excited," said Kandist Mallet, the first one to get a ticket at the Orange County Fairgrounds. "Now I just want to go home, shower, and think about my question to ask him."
But some of the questions he gets tossed might be tough, especially those coming from people like Linda Williams-Taylor who says she's having difficulty paying her mortgage every month.
"Things are getting rougher and rougher everyday, we don't know when the recession will end and we don't know when things are going to get better," she said.
