CANNON FALLS, Minn. -- Not since Calvin Coolidge in 1928 has a sitting president visited this one-stoplight city of 4,000. Until now.

President Obama broke the 83-year scoreless string at midday today before a seemingly supportive crowd of 500 gathered on the scenic banks of the Cannon River.

Obama came here this morning to begin a three-day bus tour that will take him to five places most Americans have probably never heard of. Besides Cannon Falls, they include Decorah and Peosta, Iowa, as well as Atkinson and Alpha, Ill.

These are the small cities and towns of the rural Midwest in states that voted for Obama in 2008 and that have traditionally been Democratic strongholds, along with Wisconsin and Michigan. But their economies are struggling and the public mood about Washington is dour, so he can't take anything for granted.

Not that this is a political trip, despite its appearance beneath a huge American flag. The president arrived in a high-tech, black bus to listen to Midwesterners about their hassles and their hopes -- and he's likely to get an earful.

White House press secretary Jay Carney said it was wrong to suggest that "anytime the president leaves Washington, it's campaigning." He said Obama was "doing what presidents do, going out into the country."

Traveling by bus lets him visit communities that are hard to reach, Carney said: "A plane this size is hard to get into small communities."

As many as 1,500 people lined up Sunday for tickets to the town hall event here, and only about 500 got in to the cramped space in a Cannon Falls park.

Nikki Zimmer waited nine hours outside City Hall for her tickets. Zimmer, 43, a school psychologist, lives in the House district of Rep. Michele Bachmann, but she's an Obama fan who feels the economy is doing about as well as it could after two-and-a-half years.

She blames "eight years of (George W.) Bush and the Republicans being in charge." Now, she says, those same Republicans are refusing to compromise on economic solutions. "Their answer is just 'no.'"

Bob Brintnall, 57, who chairs the Cannon Falls School Board, calls himself a centrist. But he, too, feels Obama needs more time to fix the economy.

Republican friends said "how can you go and support his policies by showing up?" Brintnall says. "I'm supporting the presidency, not the man in particular. I don't think one man can turn around the economy."

Brintnall has reason to be discouraged: He had hoped to retire soon as an insurance agent but has put off those plans. "My business has suffered dramatically," he says. All three of his children have had financial troubles because of the jobs picture.

Still, he says, Republicans' claims that it's Obama's fault is "political posturing. There's no question in my mind that's all it is," he says.

Although Goodhue County, about halfway between the Twin Cities and Rochester, leans Republican, its unemployment rate began to drop in March 2009, shortly after Obama came into office. It's now 6.8%, right around the state average.