Nineteen-year-old Michelle Butler, a college student from Boise, came away inspired – both by presidential candidate Barack Obama’s words and by the outpouring of support from Idahoans. “I was absolutely amazed at how many people showed up – that absolutely blew my mind,” she said. “It gave me hope. Maybe this country is going the right direction. I believe he is the leader that this country needs.”

Anthony Jordan, a 34-year-old physician from Boise, said, “It was amazing – it was great, it was inspiring. It was wonderful to see all these people turn out with such optimism and hope and enthusiasm. I was surprised.”

Former Idaho Gov. Cecil Andrus rallied the crowd before introducing Obama. “Man, what a beautiful sight,” he said. “Many, many familiar faces – and the beauty of this is there’s a lot of faces out there that are not familiar.” He said, “I’ve been around a long time and I’ve seen a lot of political candidates come and go. I have not seen, since John F. Kennedy in 1960, a person that has the ability to bring together to excite and inspire the people of America like Barack Obama.”

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