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The presidential contender spent more than 40 minutes making his way from table to table at the Copper Dome Restaurant, shaking hands and even picking up a baby as photographers, videographers and reporters crammed between diners to follow his every move.
“This seems like a pretty good spot. This is where the happening people meet,” Obama said shortly after walking into the restaurant, a neighborhood fixture.
Word of Obama’s visit spread quickly and people started showing up to see him. Neighborhood resident Sarah Burke saw the commotion when she went to mail a package and crossed the street with her 7-month-old son, Weston, to find out what was going on.
A short while later, Weston was in Obama’s arms.
“Are you voting? Are you voting, too?” Obama asked the baby. “What’s going on?”
Weston looked around, then stretched his arms toward his star-struck mother, who couldn’t stop saying, “Oh my gosh.”
A day earlier, the Illinois senator met privately with more than 350 donors who gave between $1,000 and $28,500 at the Hilton Minneapolis Hotel — a far cry from the scene in St. Paul, where diners included several teachers, a couple who owns a small business, a college professor and a pair of law students.
Obama spokesman Nick Kimball couldn’t immediately provide the amount raised.
In short bursts of conversation, Obama told the teachers they should be paid more, told a nursing instructor the health care system needs fixing and sketched out some of his plans to address global warming, including a cap-and-trade system for emissions.
He left with a short stack of buttermilk pancakes wrapped in foil.
Republicans said Obama’s real purpose in visiting Minnesota was to raise money, not visit with voters.
“Today, yeah, he met briefly with ordinary Minnesotans, but by and large he was here to meet with people who helped him raise millions and millions of dollars,” said Tom Steward, a spokesman for Republican John McCain’s campaign.
An independent poll last month showed Obama and McCain running about even in Minnesota.
