NOREEN: Don't expect much after campaign attention

Can you feel the love?

The presidential campaigns are wooing Colorado voters like never before. For the first time ever, Colorado is a battleground state, a toss-up, a region whose nine electoral votes are so coveted that seemingly every other day, one of the campaigns is somewhere.

Forget kissing babies. The McCain/Palin and Obama/Biden tickets are figuratively smooching us all, with or without lipstick. There's no telling how many more times they'll be here.

Republican Sen. John McCain's road show stopped in Pueblo Friday and it was no token appearance. He's been there already this year in addition to repeated stops in the Denver area, Colorado Springs (with Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin) and even Grand Junction, where no presidential candidate had set foot for 12 years.

Sen. Barack Obama also went to Grand Junction. He was in Colorado Springs July 2 to give a major speech about national service, then attended a fund-raiser (yes, a Democratic presidential fund-raiser in Colorado Springs). He didn't just blow through town, and holding the Democratic National Convention in Denver got Colorado's attention in a huge cable television way.

Historically, Colorado has been a whistle stop at best, a quaint little respite for campaigns jetting to someplace far more important. In 2004, the campaigns made double-digit visits to the state, but Sen. John Kerry didn't campaign here after August.

Quick news conferences at airports were common and even this year, that has been part of the campaign formula.

But this year, Obama has the entire West Coast sewn up. There is no reason for either campaign to go there. New York has been in Obama's bag for a long time; don't look for McCain or Obama to spend quality time there, either. And just last week, McCain dumped Michigan so that he could spend more time with us, among others.

Visits to Colorado also have been popular for the campaigns because it is next door to New Mexico, which was considered a toss-up state until last week. Not too far off is Nevada, another toss-up state.

Even people who are not political junkies are turning out.

Joe Baca, a 60-something Vietnam veteran and Democrat from Pueblo, was in the crowd Friday. It was Baca's first-ever brush with presidential fame. Baca said he'll vote for McCain "because he's earned it."

A few rows away Chester Butler of Pueblo West enthusiastically said McCain's "integrity and honor have been proven."

Butler, too, said he had never seen a presidential candidate in person.

Many Coloradans, who have never had even a presidential prom date, are excited.

They're flattered. They can't help but feel more important.

It's a great feeling, isn't it?

Well, enjoy it. Because regardless of who wins on Nov. 4, Colorado will morph back into a wallflower on Nov. 5.

That's right. They're going to love us and leave us in 30 days.

The day after the election, Colorado once again will be considered a tiny, provincial, mostly vacant spot on a map that is mostly ignored in Washington, D.C. They're not going to call. They're not going to write.

We'll only be left with the hope that just maybe, four years from now, another crazy set of circumstances will render us worthy of such high-flying romance again.

If not, well, we'll always have Pueblo.

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Contact Noreen at 636-0363 or noreen@gazette.com. He appears every other Friday on KOAA-TV at noon.