On Thursday morning before an energized crowd of thousands of supporters, President Barack Obama made a stop at Ybor City's Centennial Park during a campaign tour that stretched from Iowa to Virginia.
After cheers from the crowd, he took the stage around 9 a.m., first thanking Tampa Bay residents for getting up early this morning to see him. Then, he joked about casting his own ballot later today.
"I'm going to stop in Chicago, and do some early voting in Chicago," Obama said. "I can't tell you who I'm voting for. It's a secret ballot. Michelle (Obama) said she's voting for me."
He moved on to address more serious matters during the "America Forward!" grassroots rally, talking about the importance of trust. He spoke between chants of "Four more years," from the crowd.
"Trust matters, and Florida, you know me," Obama said. "You know I say what I mean, and I mean what I say. We haven't finished all the work we set out to do in 2008. Every single day when I set foot in that Oval Office, I'm thinking about you. I am fighting for your families."
He told the crowd what he's accomplished after being elected in 2008, saying he upheld his promises to repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," pass health care reform and preserve Medicare. He encouraged voters to compare his plan to Romney's before making a decision on the ballot.
"We've got a long way to go," Obama said, "but Florida, we've come too far to turn back now."
Both Obama and Republican candidate and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney have campaigned strongly in Florida, considered a battleground state, with just a few weeks left before November's general election. Romney is scheduled to appear in Land O' Lakes on Saturday.
Thursday's grassroots rally, held a few days after the last presidential debate on Monday night, brought about 8,500 Obama supporters from all over Tampa Bay, according to Fire Marshal Milton Jenkins of Tampa Fire Rescue.
Some wore Obama T-shirts. Others brought their kids or stood in packs behind a metal gate to catch a glimpse of the commander in chief.
Kayshondra Baroulette of Temple Terrace said she attended the rally with hopes of hearing encouraging words from Obama.
"I believe he can make a change," she said, "and he will if he is re-elected."
Lara Jackson of St. Petersburg brought her daughter, Harper Jackson, who is 11 days old, to Thursday's rally.
"I believe it's important to protect women's rights," Jackson said before the rally began. "She believes it, too," Jackson added, pointing to her daughter.
"I'm hoping to hear what his plans are," Jackson said, "because I'm confident we'll have him for the next four years."
At the end of his 20-minute speech, Obama had a few requests for the crowd:
"Knock on some doors for me. Make some calls for me. Vote for me ... we'll win Florida again. We'll win this election again."
Did you attend the Obama rally? Tell us in the comments.
"So all you libs". Ok, first, I'm an independent that isn't a liberal or a conservative. Second, I don't know what tingle you are referring to, he is a man in a position that the eletorial college elected him to. Third, if you want a intelligent debate actually give an intelligent agrument. Your agrument basically is "I beleive this to be true, I don't have any facts but it is true" then when someone gives you facts to dispute what you say this is how you follow "well all you Obama supporters beleive everything he feeds you". You talking about people following what they are feed, are you looking in the mirror? Maybe a little education on how this process works. Congress creates legislation, and the President approves or denies said legislation. There are three branches of the government that counter balance each other. The Legislative, Executive, and Judical. As far as you the service men and women who I work with daily. How do you think they think of the Republican Congress who didn't pass a budget earlier this year and caused this to miss paychecks? They don't defend this country for the president they do so for it citizens. Its not a job you take because it pays well.
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505263_162-57539893/colin-powell-endorses-barack-obama-for-president/ 4 Star General, former National Security Advisor, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Secretary of State; Colin Powell! And not just an endorsement for Obama, but after waiting for the debate on Foreign Policy, he also calls out Romney for flip flopping on every issue.
Michael Steele Santita Jackson Allen West The Rock David Webb Arthur Davis Deroy Murdock Angela McGlowan Condoleezza Rice Herman Cain Tim Scott Ron Christie and on and on and on.
There is one media that might do it of course the liberals would object to it, that media would be Fox News, also possibly 60 Minutes, I do know there are many black voters who don't support Obama/Biden due to economic crises, foreign policy crises, government over spending, I have lots of great articles for black republicans that I posted in patch but liberals jumped all over me for it accused me of lying & questioning my intelligence, using the race card you know the usual tactics they are famous for but I will risk it & post it again :)
So just like Sam Sonite, you are speaking from a place of absolute ignorance if this is what you truly believe. What each of you are saying couldn't be more factually incorrect about media outlets not representing the opinions of African Americans supporting Romney. I could have sat here all night drawing out a list of people that I regularly see, but only stopped when the names didn't just roll off tongue.
Add to that Obama's War on Whistleblowers and anyone else who wants to hold government accountable. Support whatever candidate you want. Just don't expect thinking Americans to believe one is meaningfully better than the other.
Disgusting.
When they got around the table to "Patriot", he'd be screaming like a 12-year-old, calling them "Libs!!!!" and assailing them as "un-American!!!' and then perhaps chanting "USA! USA! USA!" like some kind of propaganda-addled loon. Last refuge of a scoundrel, all right. Pathetic.
"Obama's a socialist!" Sorry, but that is simply bat-shit crazy. "Socialist" is not a synonym for "black", I'm sorry to say. You don't even know what socialism is. You've never read anything about it. You have no historical perspective, and you are incapable of providing a single example in support of your wild-eyed assertions. All you do is attack others who are far better informed than you are, inventing fictitious motives that you ascribe to them and then screeching about how much more of an "American" you are, based on your invented assertion. That's all you've got - NOTHING. What you do can't even be called circular reasoning because there is no evidence that you employ even a rudimentary element of reason. Perhaps you never went to college or chose a substandard institution of higher learning. I know it's not easy to get a degree, but some of us had the wherewithal to do the work. How about you? You have nobody to blame but yourself. "Socialism." Yeah, right. USA! USA! USA! LOL!!!
So don't sit there are pretend you're more of an "American" than I am, Fake Patriot. You're NOT. Every American citizen is just as American as I am, including you. The difference between you and many others, though, is that we put our money where our mouth is, and you don't. You just sit and listen to deranged right wing propaganda commercials, stew in perpetual resentment, and mindlessly attack others whom you perceive as disagreeing with your paranoid, ill-informed perspective on life. "Patriot." Talk is cheap, dude. Even cheaper when it comes from you.
1. Is the economy better off now than it was four years ago? Based on the evidence, I'd have to say no. Wages are down, the the prices of everything we buy is up. The price of gas has doubled. Good jobs are scarce. 2. Are the slight "up tics" in the economy a solid trend in the right direction? I don't think so. First, the gains are very slight. Second, I believe they are the result in the temporary stimulus by the Federal Reserve, in which they printed a lot of new money. It provides a slight bump now, but the cost will come later - after the election. Ben Bernanke is trying to save Obama's job, along with his own. 3. The continual misrepresentation of Romney on the auto bailout by the Obama administration. Obama appears to be taking complete credit for the bailout, while simultaneously saying that Romney was for liquidation of the auto industry. This is an absolute falsehood. It was Bush who initiated the bailout and TARP. Obama continued it and then expanded it, to his credit. However, Romney was one of the first to say that the industry needed to go through bankruptcy reorganization, and eventually they did exactly that. He also said that any needed loans should come from the private sector. He never said that the industry should be liquidated, or that he would deny federal funds if he were president, and private sector funds were not available. Obama lies! 4. The Benghazi coverup and lies.
Romney 51 Obama 45 Florida will be called on election night for Romney before the first commercial.
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