UPDATE:As of 12:45 pm. Tuesday, some tickets remained for President Barack Obama’s visit to Colorado Springs on Thursday. See details below on where to pick them up.

President Barack Obama isn’t the most popular guy in El Paso County, but you wouldn’t be able to tell it by the long line of residents who came to Colorado College on Monday to claim free tickets for Thursday’s campaign rally.

People started showing up two hours before the proverbial doors opened, and several brought lawn chairs with them. The crowd ranged from retirees to teenagers not old enough to vote. There were roughly 100 people in line by the time campaign volunteers began issuing tickets at 5 p.m.

“I’d love to hear him speak at a college, with other open-minded thinkers,” said Brian Clark, who was waiting with his wife, Rhonda. They were both grinning.

“He’s done a fabulous job, with who he has to work with,” Rhonda added. “Those stupid Republicans.”

Obama will be speaking at CC at 2 p.m. after holding an event in Pueblo on Thursday morning, and rallies in Denver and Grand Junction on Wednesday. The president’s campaign said in a statement that Obama will “discuss his plan to restore middle-class security” by helping pay down the national debt and invest in the economy.

Obama likely will enjoy a warm reception. The majority of the crowd in line Monday had smiles on their faces like the Clarks and went on about many of the same issues — health care, gay rights, jobs, the national debt, Planned Parenthood, international issues, the war in Afghanistan.

And Obama’s stage presence.

Mark Riley, a junior at CC, said he feels like he can relate to Obama, “like I could be his friend.”

“He’s not a prototypical politician — he’s not an old, white guy,” Riley said with a laugh.

Ruth Norman, an elderly woman who got one of the tickets reserved for disabled citizens, said she fell in love with Obama in 2004, when he gave the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention.

“Right then, I was taken aback, not just with what he said but with how he spoke,” she said.

Norman was one of many who raised Obama’s signature accomplishment — the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, known to many as Obamacare. Norman said that not only did the bill help protect her, but it also ensures that her two grandchildren will be able to stay on their parents’ insurance until they’re 26.

Not every person in the mob was enamored of the president, though. Several people said he and Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney are cut from the same cloth.

“If there’s only Pepsi and Coke, then why would you keep going for the same thing?” asked a bearded unaffiliated voter who said he wasn’t going to vote for Obama. “I’m just here to hear what he has to say.”

Campaign volunteers were planning to hand out tickets until 10 p.m., and if there were any left, they would open at 10 a.m. Tuesday at CC’s Worner Campus Center (902 N. Cascade Ave.), Organizing for America-Briargate (7608 N. Union Blvd.) and Organizing for America-Woodland Park (1075 E. US Highway 24).

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Community members wait in line outside of the Worner Campus Center at Colorado College in order to receive tickets to see President Barack Obama speak about his plan to restore middle-class security this Thursday, August 9, 2012. Photo by SUSANNAH KAY, THE GAZETTE

SUSANNAH KAY, THE GAZETTE