They gathered by the hundreds, some who had spent the night in tents or curled up on lawn chairs on the hard asphalt of the Orange County Fairgrounds for a chance to see President Obama.
The crowd of more than 1,000 showed the enthusiasm of a campaign rally or even the inauguration, with vendors hawking Obama T-shirts, hats and posters, people doing "the wave" and some dressed in St. Patrick's Day green.
But under the celebratory mood lay a current of anxiety and anger about the country's condition that could color the president's reception on his first official trip to California.
Many in the crowd hoped for the chance to ask him tough questions: About the jobs they've lost. About deteriorating healthcare. Some wanted to hear the president's plan for helping small businesses. Still more seethed with anger about the government's bailout of Wall Street banks and insurance giant AIG.
Others just wanted to see the person they hope will somehow set the nation right.
"We want to see our president because we believe in him," said Ontario retiree Miguel Garcia Verdin, 72, an immigrant from Mexico. "We have faith that he's not going to defraud us."
Verdin, wearing a cowboy hat, sat in a camping chair overnight with his wife, 4-year-old granddaughter and two adult sons, waiting more than 12 hours before he got tickets to today's town hall-style meeting in Costa Mesa.
West Coast swing
The event, scheduled for 4 p.m., is part of the president's two-day tour through Southern California, which also includes a town hall meeting in Los Angeles at the Miguel Contreras Learning Complex, an appearance on "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno" and a visit to an electric vehicle plant in Pomona.
Like many who waited in Costa Mesa, Verdin's son, Jose Garcia, 38, said he was eager to hear the president's plans for the ailing economy.
Garcia's small, family-owned chain of chicken restaurants is hurting, he said, and has had to slash prices to hold onto customers and cut employee hours to avoid laying off workers. He said he wanted to know Obama's plan to bail out small businesses like his, not just troubled Wall Street firms. He would like better access to loans so he can expand.
"What about us? What about the small guys?" he asked.
Stephen Mallen, an unemployed Vietnam War veteran from Hollywood, was so upset he taped a sign to his chest that read "AIG is stealing my $$$."
"Bank owned," another man's sign read.
