Florida

CAMPAIGN 2012

President Barack Obama rallies 23,000 supporters in Broward County

 

sbustos@MiamiHerald.com

President Barack Obama revved up a partisan Democratic crowd of an estimated 23,000 people Sunday afternoon at the McArthur High School football stadium in Hollywood.

After pledging his administration’s support to help the victims of Superstorm Sandy in the northeast, Obama launched into his argument for why voters should re-elect him for another four years in the White House.

“We made real progress the past four years …,” Obama said, emphasizing that we have more work to do. “As long as there is a single American who wants a job and can’t find one, our work is not done….”

He talked about how he inherited the worse economic crisis since the Great Depression. And he boasted about his accomplishments including creating millions of new jobs, helping out the auto industry, ending the war in Iraq and killing Osama Bin Laden.Obama told the crowd that they may not agree with all of his decisions. However, “you know what I believe and where I stand. I will fight for you and your family every single day,” he said.

Obama cast himself as the better choice for the middle class and said he would protect Medicare and Social Security. He said that the wealthiest should return to the tax rates they paid under former President Bill Clinton. He argued that our economy grows best “when everybody has a chance to succeed.”

When some in the crowd booed Mitt Romney, Obama responded: “I don’t want you to boo I want you to vote.”

For Obama, the visit to Hollywood — where popular rapper Pitbull was on hand for support — is one of four campaign stops the Democrat is making on Sunday. Other stops include Concord, New Hampshire, Cincinnati, Ohio, and Aurora, Colorado.

Romney, who was in Miami last week, is in Iowa, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia on Sunday. His running mate Paul Ryan is campaigning in Ohio and Colorado.

The Romney campaign has a showcase of political stars who will be stumping in South Florida for the former Massachusetts governor.

Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, former Minnesota Sen. Norm Coleman, Alabama Rep. Martha Roby and Virginia Delegate Barbara Comstock will attend get-out-the vote events in Palm Beach, Coral Springs and Aventura.

It was a picnic-like atmosphere in Hollywood, where the heavily Democratic crowd voiced its clear feelings for why Obama should remain in the White House for four more years.

Said Cindy Jagne, of Sunrise, who was there with her husband, Hassan, and son, Arsena: “Romney scares me. We don’t know where he stands.”

Before Obama arrived, U.S. Rep. Frederica Wilson, a Miami Democrat whose congressional district includes Miami-Dade and Broward counties, led the crowd in a chant of “Four More Years” and “Fired up! Ready to vote!” She wore one of her signature hats — this one a bright yellow. The crowd waved the Obama campaign’s blue “FORWARD” placards.

Former Gov. Charlie Crist, who is now an independent and rumored to be joining the Democratic party, also fired up the Obama supporters.

Bellowed Crist: “Hello Broward! Are you fired up? Ready to go …I love Barack Obama.”

Crist, who left the Republican Party in the midst of the primary for U.S. Senate in 2010, was excoriated by Republcans for welcoming the president at an event in Fort Myers in 2009, symbolically embracing the federal stimulus money coming to Florida.

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