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Hundreds line up for tickets to Obama event

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Hundreds of people lined up at the Union Depot in St. Paul Monday to get free tickets to President Obama's Wednesday speech.

Hundreds of people lined up in downtown St. Paul Monday morning to get free tickets to see President Obama speak Wednesday afternoon at the Union Depot.

The White House says Obama will announce a competition to encourage investments that would create jobs and update deteriorating roads and bridges.

Tracy Sandell, 28, of St. Paul was toward the front of the line and delighted to get her ticket. She said seeing a president speak is a once in a lifetime experience. Sandell said she voted for Obama but does not think he's accomplished the change he campaigned on.

"I just think that he said he was going to get us out of debt and I don't know take us to a better spot economically and it doesn't feel like we're there," she said.

Others disagreed.

"I think he's doing pretty good considering what he's got to work with," said Jeff Digregorio, 52,  of St. Paul who thinks Obama is a good president burdened with an unproductive Congress.

Obama was last in Minnesota in early February of 2013 when he appealed for stricter gun control following the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings in Connecticut.

Obama won in Minnesota twice, but a recent Star Tribune poll found just 43 percent of Minnesotans think he is doing a good job.