Slideshow: President Obama rallies for Dayton, DFL at university
Monday, October 25, 2010 at 5:00 am
- 11 Comments
“Hello, Minnesota! Hello, Gophers! Oh, it is good to be back in Minnesota!” So began President Barack Obama Saturday, rousing a crowd of 11,000 at the University of Minnesota. In town at the tail end of a four-state campaign swing intended to bridge an “enthusiasm gap” among Democrats, the president hailed DFL gubernatorial candidate Mark Dayton as “the only candidate who can actually deliver change, who’s actually delivered change before.”
In the presence of Sens. Al Franken and Amy Klobuchar, Reps. Keith Ellison, James Oberstar and Betty McCollum, former Vice President Walter Mondale and state auditor Rebecca Otto, Obama laid into Republicans who he says sat idly by as the middle class was “getting pounded” in recent years.
“[Republicans'] basic theory was they looked around and said, ‘Boy, we really made a big mess, we really screwed up. It’s going to take a long time to get those 8 million jobs back. People are going to be angry and frustrated. It’s better if we refuse to cooperate, we say no to everything, we try to gum up the works in Congress, and we may be able to deflect the blame come the next election,’” he said to boos from the crowd. “‘We’ll just pretend like we had nothing to do it, and we’ll point our fingers at the Democrats.’”
“In other words, the other side was betting on amnesia,” he said, drawing laughter. “They’re betting that you’ll forget who caused this mess in the first place.”
A moment later, he said, “If you think somehow there’s a new and improved Republican Party out there, let me be clear: The chair of the Republican campaign committee was asked, well, what are you going to do if you take over Congress. He said, we’ll pursue the ‘exact same agenda’ as we did before Obama took office.”
Obama’s efforts appear to be having some success, according to a Newsweek poll taken last Thursday and Friday. His own approval rating jumped to 54 percent, up from 48 percent a month ago. And slightly more poll respondents — 48 percent — said they’d be more likely to vote for Democrats, compared to 42 percent saying they’d be more likely to vote for Republicans on election day.
Still, as the New York Times reported Sunday, there are 28 Democratic House seats that are leaning Republican or considered losses for Democrats, while 40 Democratic seats are tossups. Republicans will need to win a net of 39 seats to win the majority in the House. In the Senate, the prognosis isn’t quite as grim, with Democrats still holding onto a slight lead.
Photojournalist Kathy Easthagen, who covered Obama’s September 2009 healthcare rally for the Minnesota Independent, was on hand at the rally to capture Obama’s visit in pictures. Click here to view the full-sized slideshow or here to read the full text of Obama’s speech.
11 Comments
Comment posted October 25, 2010 @ 8:16 am
Read how Betty McCollum got crushed in debate by Teresa Collett –
http://mncdneedschange.blogspot.com/2010/10/post-game-wrap-up-of-mncd4-debate-with.html
Comment posted October 25, 2010 @ 10:07 am
“They’re betting that you’ll forget who caused this mess in the first place.”
How could anyone forget Barney Frank, Chris Dodd and the whole democrat congress?
Comment posted October 25, 2010 @ 10:59 am
Hey Dennis, as I recall, Republicans were in charge of the White House and both houses of Congress when the economy nearly collapsed entirely, and GWB was on his knees begging the Democrats to help support TARP (which is now profitable to taxpayers, incidentally) to prevent a total meltdown. Apparently, Obama is right. You do seem to have amnesia.
Also, it’s “Democratic Congress.” And I least I had the decency to capitalize the name of your party, which is more grace than you seem to have. You seem to be able to find the shift key when you’re typing people’s names.
Comment posted October 25, 2010 @ 11:13 am
And get this…
“2010: Democrats Set Records for Dirtiest Election Ever”
http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/campaign-dirty-tricks-tea/2010/10/24/id/374719
Comment posted October 25, 2010 @ 12:06 pm
Hey Al, the democrats have controlled congress since the 2006 elections. The economy didn’t go south until late 2007 because of their meddling in the housing market, with Barney Frank and Chris Dodd encouraging, no demanding, that Freddy Mac and Fannie Mae make home loans to people who couldn’t afford them.
Until the democrats took over congress, the unemployment rate was actually less than 5%.
You can look it up, it was in all the papers.
http://money.cnn.com/2006/02/03/news/economy/jobs_january/index.htm
Comment posted October 25, 2010 @ 3:47 pm
Hey Dennis, who controlled Congress when these policies that imploded the financial system were put into place? Your bunch funny enough. With Bush still in office, all the Democratic Congress could do was stop the bleeding. As the economy turns around, Obama and the Democrats will get and deserve the credit.. Enjoy this election night, because it will likely be the last good one for a while.
Comment posted October 25, 2010 @ 3:53 pm
I wonder if what has Republicans ticked off and trying to change the subject is that the DFL has bucked the enthusiasm gap. If there was a year that should have been theirs, it was this one. Seriously, think about who you’re picking for candidates.
Comment posted October 27, 2010 @ 10:40 am
Its sad that people still think that obama is doing any good. 60+ percent of the country hates the guy. The more people see what he is doing the more his ratings drop. In comming years if his policies arn’t fixed it will be funny to see how many dems realize what they did.
Dem Fail.
p.s. lets just tax people till they cant buy food or pay bills anymore. then all the rich people can give us their money and we can all collect unemployment. Go Dictator Obama. He will take care of us because we cant do it ourself.
Please dont vote. Your an idiot….
Comment posted October 27, 2010 @ 4:07 pm
Damien you are the one that should not be voting with all of the crap you just said.
Comment posted October 28, 2010 @ 2:35 am
The President still has a very high approval rating and as of late it has gone up, it is amazing how much of our discourse is based on unreliable polls.
This is the hardest working President we have had since FDR. He has done an amazing job of averting the 2nd great depression , I am so grateful for every inch of progress that he has made!
I am very proud of the accomplishments of this administration, and if my haunch about the polls and the corporatist media is correct the Repubs are going to be even further marginalized in the next cycle.
“With voter registration in the U.S. being Dems-72 million, Repubs-54 million and Indys-42 million, it seems to me that in order for the Repubs to have a larger voter turn out than the Dems, 1 out of every 3 Dems will have to stay home AND 9 out of every 10 Repubs must make it to the polls…then in order to win, they need to convince more of the Independents to vote their way too…
Not withstanding purged voter rolls, broken/rigged voting machines and an abundance of creative gerrymandering, am I wrong is thinking that in order to win big, the Repubs need all three of these thing to happen in perfect order for them to live up to the pundit’s and polls predictions?
While I cannot find specific data which shows the breakdown on Indy voters, how many lean toward left, right, center, outer space… I really find it hard to believe that the same bunch who overwhelmingly went for Hope, Progress, and Change last time, are now going to pull the lever for a bunch of Nazi reenacting, Anti-Abolitionist, Anti-Legal Abortion-even in cases of rape, Anti-Separation of Church and State, Gun Worshiping Hate/Fear Mongering corporate shilling witches… yeah right!
RSS feed for comments on this post.
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
