Bill Glauber and Mary Spicuzza and Craig Gilbert

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Former President Barack Obama, a campaign closer for Democrats, brought the political heat to Milwaukee’s North Division High School Friday.

Imploring Democrats to vote in the Nov. 6 election and excoriating Republicans for policies that he said favor the rich, Obama gave a stout defense of his eight years in office and took plenty of shots at Republicans who have controlled all levers of power in Washington over the last two years.

In his most animated speech on the campaign trail this year, he accused Gov. Scott Walker and other Republicans of lying about their health care record and their claims that they'll support protections for those who have pre-existing medical conditions.

Obama said there has always been spin in politics, but "what we have not seen before in our recent public life is politicians just blatantly, repeatedly, baldly, shamelessly lying, making stuff up. Calling up down, calling black white."

Obama said of Walker's recent ad defending his record on pre-existing conditions: “Your governor has been running an ad during election time saying he is going to protect pre-existing conditions when he is literally doing the opposite. That is some kind of gall. That is some kind of chutzpah. But let’s also call it what it is. It is a lie.”

Walker responded in a tweet that PolitiFact gave Obama a national lie of the year for saying, “If you like your health care plan, you can keep it.”

"It takes some kind of gall for him to come into Wisconsin and lie again about health care and about pre-existing conditions," said Walker, who promised to call a special session of the Legislature to deal with pre-existing conditions should Obamacare be killed by the courts.

Obama said Republicans have “cut taxes for the rich and corporations,” stripped environmental rules and “ran up the deficit just like they did last time.”

He charged Republicans with purging voter rolls to keep people from voting and trying to “scare everyone else with whatever divisive social issues they can come up with, just like the last time.”

“They promised to take on corruption … they have gone to Washington and just plundered away,” he said. “In Washington they have racked up enough indictments to field a football team. Nobody in my administration got indicted.”

Obama headlined a rally for the entire state Democratic ticket, including state schools Superintendent Tony Evers, who is running for governor against Walker, and U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, who faces Republican Leah Vukmir. At several points, Obama mispronounced Evers' name, which rhymes with “weavers,” not “endeavors.”

It was nearly four years to the day of Obama's last rally at North Division when he came to Milwaukee to rev up support for a candidate for governor.

Obama couldn't get Mary Burke across the finish line first in 2014, as she lost to Walker.

On Friday, there were 3,500 people in the gymnasium and another 600 in an overflow room, according to a Milwaukee Fire Department official.

Obama was also joined by U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore, who attended North Division, congressional candidates Randy Bryce and Dan Kohl, and other officials and candidates.

The visit came in the wake of the discovery of more than a dozen suspicious packages sent to Obama and others through the mail. The packages contained pipe bombs.

A bombing suspect was arrested and identified as Cesar Sayoc Jr.

Obama made no mention of the incident.

Obama arrived two days after President Donald Trump rallied thousands of Republicans at an airport in Mosinee, south of Wausau. Former Vice President Joe Biden will attend Democratic events Tuesday in Madison and Milwaukee.

Obama did not mention Trump's name, but said: "I'm hoping you think it's wrong to hear people spend years, months, vilifying people, questioning their patriotism, calling them enemies of the people, and then suddenly you're concerned about civility. Please."

Democrats are hoping that Obama's visit will boost turnout in Milwaukee during the midterm elections.

Turnout in Milwaukee dropped sharply from 2012, when Obama was on the ballot, to 2016, when Hillary Clinton lost to Trump.

Evers told the crowd: “We’re going to win this thing. We’re fired up and we’re going to take back Wisconsin because it is time for a change."

Evers said Walker has “waged war on working people and put special interests and his donors ahead of the people of Wisconsin.” He added Walker has been “against women,” and has “done everything he could to gut the Affordable Care Act and the pre-existing conditions that exist for 2.4 million people in Wisconsin.”

Baldwin said she recalled that as a member of the House she had an opportunity to be at the White House when Obama signed the Affordable Care Act into law.

“I felt that a lot of work that I had engaged in for many, many years was being seen through,” Baldwin said, detailing her story of being a child with a pre-existing health condition.

“In that grand room in the White House as the president signed that law, I realized we had crossed an incredibly important milestone. That protection (on pre-existing conditions) was now in that law,” she said.

Baldwin criticized "special interest" funded ads that began running against her last year, and said she was "going to wear this like a badge of courage."

"I don't work for them," she said. "I work for you."

Without mentioning Vukmir by name, Obama said that if she were elected, she would be a deciding vote on gutting protections on pre-existing conditions. Vukmir has said she supports such protections.

Vukmir tweeted that Obama "lied to you when he said 'if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor.' He's lying again now ... and he won't even acknowledge that Tammy Baldwin wants to boot 3.4 MILLION Wisconsinites off employer insurance and destroy Medicare."

Baldwin, who supports Medicare for all, has denied Vukmir's accusations.

The latest Marquette University Law School Poll showed Walker and Evers in a virtual tie while Baldwin held a 10-point lead over Vukmir.

"I find it very interesting that Tammy Baldwin feels the need to bring Barack Obama if she is so confident about her lead," Vukmir told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. "Meanwhile, we had President Trump here in the central part of the state, Mosinee. He flew Air Force Two right in the middle of our state, didn't go to one of the big cities. Wants to meet with the people, middle class, hard-working folks of our state."

"That's what the message of my campaign is all about. Tammy Baldwin has really lost touch with that," Vukmir added.

A Milwaukee voter, Jerry Harris, said: "I feel a sense of urgency" about the election.

"We got kind of kicked in the head" during the last two years, he said, adding that race relations and gender issues had taken a step backward with Trump in the White House.

“He made me want to vote but I’m too young,” said 15-year-old A.J. Petty, a student at Milwaukee Collegiate Academy.

Caitlyn McGeary, a 19-year-old Cudahy resident, said it was "really amazing" to be at the school for Obama's speech.



McGeary said she was excited to vote for the first time, and plans to vote for everyone who joined Obama onstage.



"Vote," she said after his speech. "Everybody vote."

The rally began with speeches from a slew of Democratic candidates.

Josh Kaul, running for attorney general against Republican incumbent Brad Schimel, said new leadership is “needed to fighting crime and getting justice for Wisconsinites.”

Mandela Barnes, running for lieutenant governor, told the crowd, “We have 11 days to go before we send Scott Walker packing.”

Barnes said an Evers-Barnes administration will "prioritize education over incarceration."

He urged the crowd to "vote like you want Barack Obama to be president again."

Moore said Wisconsin is going to "repeal and replace" Walker. She led a rendition of a song she called "The Scott Kevin Walker Blues."

RELATED:Marquette poll shows Scott Walker and Tony Evers in toss-up for governor while Tammy Baldwin holds lead over Leah Vukmir in Senate race

RELATED:GOP's fate in Wisconsin this fall is tied to the widening gender gap over Trump

RELATED:Wisconsin U.S. Senate race: Leah Vukmir, Tammy Baldwin open final stretch of campaigning

POLITIFACT: Fact checking Scott Walker and Tony Evers in the governor's race