The Political Landscape:

Wednesday’s town hall meeting with President Obama yielded some happy endings and some, uh, not-so-happy ones. In fact, in Assemblyman Van Tran’s case it was downright embarrassing.

Tran, who was one of the area’s earliest and most ardent supporters of John McCain’s presidential bid — even in the darkest hours of his candidacy — was turned away Wednesday when he tried to attend the rally.

Looks like it was a big misunderstanding and not some dark conspiracy to rebuff a McCain booster.

“We had a little hiccup,” Tran said.

Tran received an invitation from the White House, which is customary for local representatives no matter the party affiliation.

“I was very pleased to have the president come to our legislative district in the heart of Costa Mesa,” Tran said.

So he flew down from Sacramento, got to the fairgrounds and someone at one of the VIP private gates turned him away. Not on the list, he was told.

Tran had a ticket so he went to the public gate like everyone else, but it was too late. Obama was in the building already, and it was locked down.

When Tran’s spokesman Dave Everett called the White House to find out what happened he was told Obama’s representatives would try to set up a personal meeting with the president today. It wasn’t guaranteed as of Wednesday night, so stay tuned.

But if he gets the chance, Tran wants to quiz the president on his plans to right the economy. That should be interesting as both men have quite different ideas on how to do so.

Eva Orozco was all set for the long haul. She had her peanut butter sandwich, some water and a little sign that said, “I need a ticket.”

The Obama fan desperately wanted to see the president at the Costa Mesa fairgrounds town hall meeting, but couldn’t get a ticket Tuesday. So she showed up about 11 a.m. with her sign. The lunch was to tide her over as she waited for the presidential motorcade if she failed to score a ticket.

“I was content with that,” she said.

Then it happened.

About 45 minutes after she got there someone noticed her sign.

“He said one of his friends couldn’t make it so he had an extra ticket,” Orozco said.

She called her daughter to share the happy news, but she didn’t sound exactly thrilled.

“She said, ‘No fair,’ ” Orozco said, chuckling as she added her daughter waited overnight to get her tickets.