At Nashua stop, Obama highlights importance of New Hampshire voters, outlines accomplishments

By KATHLEEN RONAYNE

Monitor staff

Last modified: 11/12/2012 11:16:22 AM

With 10 days to go until the election, President Obama made a push to energize voters in Nashua yesterday by drawing a sharp contrast between both his and Republican Mitt Romney’s past governing records and their plans for the next four years.



“Ten days, New Hampshire,” he said as he stepped on stage. “Ten days and you’ll be stepping into a voting booth and making a choice about the future of our country. Not just a choice between two candidates or two political parties – it is a choice between fundamentally different visions of America.”



Obama spoke to a crowd of several thousand people at Elm Street Middle School for 20 minutes, with singer James Taylor opening with a short set list. Obama touted the successes of his first four years in office while hammering Romney’s record of job creation during his time as Massachusetts governor. He also compared his vision for the next four year’s with Romney’s, touching on issues ranging from the hot topic of women’s rights to tax policy to education. The importance of New Hampshire as a swing state underscored the entire event, with both Obama and Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, who introduced the president, saying New Hampshire voters have a clear and important choice.



“Are we gonna deliver New Hampshire for President Obama?” Shaheen asked to roars from the crowd and chants of “Four more years!”



Obama used Romney’s record as governor of Massachusetts to paint him as someone who doesn’t follow through on promises. Although Romney promises not to raise taxes on middle-class families, when he was



governor of Massachusetts he raised fees on items such as gas, milk and marriage licenses, which all affected families, Obama said. The president also injected humor into his speech by taking a jab at the conspiracy theory that he was not born in the United States.



“He raised fees to get a birth certificate, which would have been difficult for me,” he said to roars of laughter from the crowd.



Romney’s main campaign message is that he can create jobs and help small businesses grow. But, Obama said, Massachusetts ranked in the high 40s among states for both job creation and the number of small businesses when Romney left office.



“This is a guy who has a track record of saying one thing and doing something else,” he said.



In contrast, Obama listed a number of promises he campaigned on that he has achieved. Among his accomplishments in office, Obama included cutting taxes for middle class families by $3,600, cutting taxes for small businesses, ending Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, bailing out the auto industry, ending the war in Iraq and killing Osama bin Laden.



More than 5 million jobs have been created in the past four years, making a dent in the 9 million lost during the recession, he said.



But, Obama said, there is more to be done, and his vision for the future will move the country forward while Romney’s would set it back.



“All he’s offering is a rerun of the same policies that created so many hardships for so many Americans,” Obama said.



Leading up to the debates, Obama faced criticism that he had not laid out a clear vision for his second term. Yesterday, he shared detailed plans for strengthening the economy and getting people back to work.



His plan includes ending tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas, cutting oil imports by investing in fuel efficiency, hiring 100,000 new science and math teachers, reducing the deficit by $4 trillion over the next 10 years and using the savings from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq to invest in infrastructure.



On two of the most contentious issues during this campaign, health care and women’s rights, Obama promised he would never turn Medicare into a voucher and said no one but women themselves should be making decisions about their health care.



Obama’s speech peaked as he made a personal appeal to voters, as he told the crowd the election is a choice between “turning back the clock 50 years” or standing up for “that basic principle in our founding documents that all of us are created equal – black, white, Hispanic, Asian, Native American, young, old, rich, poor, gay, straight,” he shouted over the cheering crowd.



“No matter who you are, no matter what you look like, no matter where you come from, you’ve got a place in America. You can make it if you try, that’s what we believe.”



Although he did not directly acknowledge the importance of New Hampshire’s four electoral votes, by the end of his speech his message was strong and clear: “New Hampshire, I still believe in you. I need you to keep believing in me. I need you to work with me, roll up your sleeves with me, knock on some doors with me,” he said.



“I will win New Hampshire again.”





