President Obama Revs Up Hollywood Crowd
HOLLYWOOD (CBSMiami) – HOLLYWOOD (CBSMiami) – President Barack Obama brought his closing argument in the campaign to South Florida on Sunday, less than 48 hours before the general election on Tuesday.
Air Force 1 touched down just after 3 p.m. at the private Sheltair Aviation next to Ft. Lauderale-Hollywood International Airport.
President Obama took to the stage just after 4 p.m. before a crowd of 23,000 cheering supporters at a "grassroots" event at McArthur High School Football Field in Hollywood.
Mr. Obama told the crowd that he would not stop working for the victims of Hurricane Sandy and asked voters to fight for him over the next two days. He added that his opponent Gov. Mitt Romney's plans may sound good to some, but they won't work. He said it's a case of 'been there, done that'.
"We know that our ideas work. We also know that their ideas don't because we tried their ideas too. We tried giving big tax cuts to the wealthiest Americans, we tried giving insurance companies and oil companies and Wall St. free reign to do whatever they please. And you know what we got. We got falling incomes and record deficits and the slowest job growth in half a century. And an economic crisis we've been cleaning up after ever since," said Obama. "So lets just think about this, here's your choice. You got ideas that we tried and didn't work and you've got ideas we tried and did work. So you'd think it would be a pretty clear choice, but Governor Romney is a very talented salesman."
So how does he plan to proceed?
"It's time to use the savings from ending the wars to pay down our debt and rebuild America – rebuilding roads and bridges and making sure our schools are state of the art. And hiring our veterans when they come home because if you fought for this country, you shouldn't have to fight for a job when you come home. That's my plan to keep America strong. That's what at stake in this election," said Obama.
As for paying down the deficit.
"I've cut a trillion dollars' worth of spending. I intend to do more but if we're serious about reducing the deficit, we've also got to ask the wealthiest Americans to go back to the tax rates they paid when Bill Clinton was president," said Obama. "Because budgets are about choices. We can't do everything and we gotta make sure that what we do we pay for."
Senator Bill Nelson, U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, former Gov. Charlie Crist and musician Pitbull were also on hand to speak to the crowd.
Obama's appearance in South Florida came just days after First Lady Michelle Obama made an appearance Thursday at the University of Miami. President Obama's Republican challenger Mitt Romney also appeared at a star-studded GOP rally at UM earlier in the week.
Both candidates are looking to pull out a victory in the Sunshine State and capture 29 key Electoral College votes. Current polling has the state tied, but forecasters have given Romney a slight advantage thanks to what's expected to be a Romney win on Election Day and an Obama win during early voting.
