Photo by Terry Penrod
Obama pleads with Democrats in Ohio, warns against GOP gains
Columbus, Ohio (CNN) -- President Obama pleaded with Democratic voters to keep hope alive and warned about Republicans making congressional gains in an Ohio speech Sunday that comes just weeks before the midterm elections.
"Everybody said, 'No you can't' and in 2008 you showed them, 'Yes we can,' " Obama told tens of thousands of supporters at Ohio State University in Columbus. "In two weeks, you have the chance to say once again, 'Yes we can.'"
Obama repeatedly urged the crowd to try to recreate the aura of 2008, when he rode a Democratic wave into the White House and his party gained seats on Capitol Hill.
The president focused mostly on the economy Sunday, arguing that his policies had staved off a second Great Depression and warning that a Republican return to power would revive the economic policies of the early 2000s.
Striking a populist tone, Obama said such policies would favor powerful corporations over middle-class Americans. Republican gains would lead to rollbacks in federal health care and education assistance, he said, while wealthy Americans would reap tax cuts and big companies would enjoy lighter regulation.
"They'll tell you its the ownership society, but basically it's 'You're on your own,'" Obama said, at what was officially a Democratic National Committee rally. "If you lose your job, you're on your own. If your child doesn't have health care, tough luck, you're on your own."
"This is the same theory they have been peddling for years and it's up to you to tell them we do not want what they are selling," Obama said later. "We've been there before and we're not going back."
Obama's stop in Ohio is one in a series of appearances he's making in states that he easily took two years ago but where Democrats are struggling to hold onto gubernatorial mansions and House seats ahead of next month's midterm elections.
In the Buckeye State, Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland -- who spoke before Obama on Sunday -- is locked in a tight re-election race with former Rep. John Kasich, a Republican.
Ohio Reps. John Boccieri, Steve Driehaus, Mary Jo Kilroy and Zack Space -- all Democrats -- are at risk of losing their seats next month, political analysts say.
First lady Michelle Obama appeared with the president on Sunday night, in their first day of joint campaigning since 2008.
Mrs. Obama said that she'd avoided the campaign trail "since a little campaign you might remember a a couple of years ago."
"If you are still as fired up as you were in two years ago then I know we can keep bringing about the change that I know -- that we all know -- can keep that American dream alive," she said.
At a Cleveland fundraiser earlier in the day, Mrs. Obama introduced her husband as "the love of my life, even though he doesn't always think it. And more importantly, the president of the United States."
"It is not true that more importantly I am the president of the United States," the president replied when he got the microphone. "More importantly, I am Michelle Obama's husband, and Malia and Sasha's father, and Michelle has put up with me through thick and thin, and I'm grateful for her each and every day."
Columbus Dispatch:
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
Seeking to fire up the Democratic base and the young voters who helped put him into office in 2008, President Barack Obama urged an overflow crowd on the Ohio State University Oval last night to reject a Republican agenda "that nearly destroyed the economy."
"We need you fired up because in a little more than two weeks, you can set the direction of this state and the direction of this country for not just the next two years, but the next five years, the next 10 years, the next 20 years," Obama said to the crowd, which university police estimated at 35,000. It's believed to be the largest Obama rally since his inauguration.
Polls suggest there is an "enthusiasm gap" this year between Democrats and Republicans. But standing on a stage set up in front of Hayes Hall on a crisp fall evening, Obama hammered home the Democratic message nationwide and in Ohio - especially in the fiercely contested race between Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland and GOP challenger John Kasich - that electing Republicans this fall would take the nation backward.
"This is the same theory they have been peddling for years," Obama said of GOP policies on regulation, taxes, trade and other issues that he blamed for causing the recession. "And Ohio, it is up to you to tell them we do not want what they are selling. We've been there before, and we are not going back."
Obama started his 27-minute speech by referencing the OSU Buckeyes' 31-18 loss to the Wisconsin Badgers on Saturday night.
"Now, let me just say, I am sorry about last night," Obama said. "But one thing I know about Buckeyes is, you all don't quit. You get up, you keep fighting, you keep believing, and that's what we need from you right now."
First lady Michelle Obama, campaigning with her husband for the first time since rallies in Ohio two days before the 2008 election, introduced the president and led the crowd in a chant of "O-H, I-O."
"This is a serious moment for our country," she said. "There is so much at stake."
The Columbus rally was the fourth in a series of "Moving America Forward" events with Obama, including a similar rally last month at the University of Wisconsin in Madison.
It was Obama's 11th trip to the Buckeye State since taking office and his fourth to Columbus - a point that Republicans repeatedly drove home in pre-rally e-mails and comments, calling Strickland and Obama "twins on the issues."
"Ohioans are paying attention to the fact that it's President Obama driving that agenda in Washington, and Ted Strickland is driving his agenda here - neither of which has been good for Ohio," Auditor Mary Taylor, Kasich's running mate, said on a conference call with reporters before the rally.
Kasich and Taylor even staged a webcast at the same time last night to highlight "Obama/Strickland's economic failures."
Republicans also suggested that Obama is helping Strickland for selfish reasons: his own re-election in 2012, because Ohio is a critical battleground state and Obama will want a Democrat in the governor's office.
Larissa Gerber and Johanna Moeckel, both 22-year-old OSU seniors who attended the rally, said they voted for Obama in 2008. They both think Obama has done a good job in office so far and "definitely" plan to vote this year.
But Ben Boeke, 30, a Grove City engineer who attended the rally with his wife and 3-year-old son, said he is leaning toward supporting Kasich in the governor's race because "nothing's really changed the last four years with Strickland."
Obama's visit probably won't have a dramatic impact beyond central Ohio but can help motivate volunteers and energize voters at a time Democrats need a boost, said OSU political science professor Paul Beck.
"Enthusiasm matters, and I think there's probably in Democratic circles these days all across the country a sense of fatalism, discouragement, things don't seem to be going very well," Beck said. "If it cuts down by 10 or 20 percent on the effort, that of course at the margins could make a difference."
Earlier yesterday, the president appeared at a fundraiser for Strickland and the Ohio Democratic Party at the suburban Cleveland home of David and Carole Carr. The Strickland campaign did not disclose the amount raised but said 350 people paid between $750 and $5,000 each.
The president also held a small fundraiser in Columbus before the OSU rally for the Democratic National Committee that was expected to raise $250,000.
Dispatch Senior Editor Joe Hallett contributed to this story.
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