The president will speak at a rally for gubernatorial candidate Mark Dayton as he continues his bid to enthuse a reluctant Democratic base for a midterm election that polls show is becoming tighter in its final days.
President Obama headed to Minnesota on Saturday, his fifth state in four days as he tried to build enthusiasm among the traditional elements of the Democratic Party for a midterm election that polls show is becoming tighter in its final days.
Obama left a sunny Las Vegas in the morning for the flight to Minneapolis where he will speak at a rally in support of Democrat Mark Dayton, who faces Republican Tom Emmer in a three-way race for the governor’s office. Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, who is eyeing a presidential run in 2012, decided not to seek a third term.
The rally is designed to aid local Democrats and comes as Obama has stepped up his campaigning in the waning days of the midterm election cycle. In past days he has been in Oregon, Washington, California and Nevada, hoping to excite women, the young and minorities to go vote on Nov. 2 and keep democrats in control of Congress.
If everybody who showed up in 2008 shows up in 2010, we will win this election,” Obama said Friday night in Las Vegas, speaking on behalf of Sen. Harry Reid, the majority leader whose seat and post is on the line in the election. Some polls show him slightly trailing Republican Sharron Angle, a “tea party” movement favorite.
Throughout his current campaign swing, the president has given the same pitch to what polls show is a reluctant Democratic base. At rallies and in local media interviews, Obama has said that every Democratic vote is needed to prevent Republicans from capturing Congress and pushing a return to policies that sparked a crippling recession.
“This election is a choice between the policies that got us into this mess and the policies that are leading us out of this mess,” Obama has repeated at rallies including one on Friday at the University of Southern California. It is a “choice between the past and the future, a choice between hope and fear, a choice between moving forward or going backward.
“I don’t know about you, but I want to move forward,” Obama said.
Polls show Republicans, fueled by tea party anger, doing very well in this cycle. Running on a platform of opposing Obama’s healthcare insurance overhaul, they have also attacked the government’s $814-billion stimulus spending effort for not creating enough jobs to seriously lower the 9.6% unemployment rate and have condemned the administration’s financial reform program.
As is common in midterm elections, Republicans are expected to increase their influence in both chambers of Congress, and some polls show them winning control of the House. Polls show the GOP has a more difficult shot at controlling the Senate where they need to capture 10 seats from Democrats. Republicans are also expected to up their control of governors’ mansions to more than 30, giving them a edge in the battles to redistrict congressional and local legislative districts.
Obama has reminded his audience of those stakes in this election as he campaigns. But he has also cast an optimistic tone, reminding possible voters that they still have power to make change work — a flashback to the theme that helped him win election in 2008.
The president is working hard in the last days of the election. In addition to the current swing, Obama is scheduled to campaign next week in Rhode Island before hitting the hotly-contested states of Connecticut, Illinois, Pennsylvania and Ohio toward the end of the week. Pawlenty on Saturday posted a web video ostensibly designed to explain local lingo to Obama, but making the kind of political points that he and other Republicans have used in the current election cycle.
“Minnesotans don’t like to offend people by coming right out and saying no, so instead they say, ‘Eh, not so much,’ like if you asked Minnesotans, ‘Do you like the federal takeover of the healthcare system?’ They might say, ‘Eh, not so much,'” Pawlenty said in the video.
In another not so subtle jab at Obama, Pawlenty tries to explain the local exclamation, “uffdah.”
“If you wanted to use it in a sentence, it would be like, ‘You said unemployment would stay below 8% and now it’s almost 10% — uffdah,'” Pawlenty said.
Los Angeles Times