In an election that could hinge on voter turn-out, President Obama went back to his old neighborhood Saturday night to fire up his home-town supporters — and urge them to get their friends to the polls.
“We need you to work to get everybody out to vote,” Obama told the cheering throngs — estimated by organizers as 35,000 people — at the University of Chicago’s Midway Plaisance. “If everyone who came out to vote in 2008 shows up in 2010, we will win this election.”
Illinois Republicans — holding a rival rally in Northbrook, said that this visit from Obama, his third in recent weeks in addition to one by his wife — shows the Democrats are desperate.
Obama acknowledged the difficulties Democrats are facing in congressional and in gubernatorial races around the nation.
“There’s no doubt that this is a tough election,’’ he said. “It’s tough here in Illinois. It’s tough all across the country.”
But Obama said Republicans were counting on voters’ “amnesia” to win.
“Chicago, it’s up to you to let them know that we have not forgotten,” he said. “It’s up to you to let them know that this election is a choice between the policies that got us into this mess and the policies that are starting to lead us out of this mess.”
He added: “I’m speaking not just to Chicago, but to whole state of Illinois.”
But the crowd indicated they backed up whole-heartily. When Obama said he knew “some of the excitement we had at Grant Park has faded,” and acknowledged some supporters might not be as charged up as they were on his election night, the crowd shouted, “Noooooo!”
http://www.suntimes.com/news/elections/2850490,barack-obama-rally-midway-chicago-103010.article
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