Obama Pool Report from Missoula

The Senator walked out onto the University of Montana's football field to greet a spillover crowd of about 500 waiting for him in the stands. As spillover settings go, this was probably among the most picturesque yet -- looming just beyond the stadium was Mt. Sentinel, with its famous big "M" built into the broad slope.

Standing at one end of the field, Obama gave only a brief greeting, joking, "I'm going to run a post pattern," then adding, "You don't want to see me play football" before noting that he was better at football than he was at bowling. He thanked everyone for waiting, said he couldn't stay long because he had to go on to Butte, then said he was thinking of learning fly-fishing and looking for volunteers to teach him. And he urged the crowd to go out and vote.

He then strode down the field along the edge of the stands shaking outstretched hands, met with the now-customary squeals of love and adulation. "I'll teach you how to fish!" shouted one woman. Another man shouted, "Don't forget about the reservations!" "You are our hope," one woman told him. "With your help, we can make it happen," Obama answered. When he reached the far end of the field, he strode all the way back, further out on the field, waving to the crowd, before exiting through a tunnel at the other end.

Among those in the crowd was Dan Taylor, a 46-year-old sports bar cook who had come to the event with a sign he'd painted on an open cardboard box: "Trout for Obama," decorated with a colorful rainbow trout that he drew with the help of a book. Since he didn't get into the arena, he didn't have to give the sign up, and when he was holding it up in the football stands, Obama staffers saw it and offered to have it signed by Obama. A beaming Taylor gripped the autographed cardboard slab like a talisman.

"I'm going to frame this sucker. You'll never see this on e-bay," said Taylor, a Great Falls native wearing a Missoula Osprey baseball cap. "I'm overwhelmed. My friends aren't going to believe it."