Published: Saturday, 11/1/2014 - Updated: 21 seconds ago
DETROIT -- Recalling the scary days last decade when Michigan's auto industry teetered on liquidation, President Obama today rallied an enthusiastic crowd in a Wayne State University fieldhouse to help Democrats win a U.S. Senate seat and the Michigan governorship.
'Your vote will decide the course that Michigan takes. This election's too important to stay home,' Mr. Obama said to a crowd of about 6,000 assembled to promote a big voter turnout on Tuesday.
About 900,000 people who voted in 2008 in Michigan did not vote in 2010, the President told his audience.
'I don't know what's going on with those folks. We've got to let them know their vote matters,' he said, saying every vote is important to issues such as the minimum wage, equal pay for women, and 'choice' in women's health care, a reference to abortion rights.
He joked, 'I don't know if you noticed, ObamaCare works. Pretty soon they won't be calling it ObamaCare anymore, you know that.'
The President stumped for former U.S. Rep. Mark Schauer (D., Battle Creek) in his run against Republican incumbent Gov. Rick Snyder. Mr. Snyder holds a small lead in opinion polling, and Democrats are hoping to overcome that with a strong turnout in heavily Democratic metro Detroit.
Also supported by the President was U.S. Rep. Gary Peters (D., Bloomfield Township), who is running against Republican former Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land to succeed U.S. Sen. Carl Levin (D., Mich.).
Present in almost every speaker's remarks, including Mr. Obama's, were references to the government bailout that saved the auto industry in 2009.
'Some of the same folks who wanted to throw in the towel six years ago are asking for your vote now. They've got a lot of nerve. I think you should vote for Mark and Gary instead, because you know they have your back,' said Mr. Obama, who wore an open-collar dress shirt.
Mr. Schauer introduced Mr. Obama as 'the President who rescued the auto industry.'
'He knows a thing or two about beating wealthy, out-of-touch Republicans,' Mr. Schauer said, evidently a swipe at Michigan son Mitt Romney, Mr. Obama's GOP challenger in 2012.
Mr. Peters said he was at a meeting in 2009 in which the chief executive of Chrysler warned that, without a cash infusion, Chrysler was five weeks away from liquidation. He said that Ms. Land would have voted against the bailout.
Ms. Land has claimed she would have supported the bailout, but PolitiFact.com reviewed comments back to 2009 to conclude she flipflopped.
'We remember six years ago what it was like. It looked like we didn't have any hope,' said Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan.
The crowd had been warmed up by a series of speakers, including public school teachers who exhorted the crowd with such slogans as, 'If we vote, we win.'
U.S. Rep. John Conyers (D., Michigan) said, 'I have never been involved in a more important election because it's going to determine if we control the United States Senate.'
U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D., Mich) told the crowd that in 2010, 'we didn't show up, and look what we got: a governor and right-wing legislature that put Michigan in the top 10 of student debt, attacked women's rights over and over again, took democracy from Detroit, all the while helping their wealthy friends.'
The rally, held in a state where Mr. Obama's approval rating is said to be even with his disapproval rating compared with a negative rating nationally, felt like the presidential election rallies of 2012.
Republicans criticized Mr. Obama and Mr. Schauer for spending 'trillions of dollars to pay for an unpopular health care law and billions more in failed bailout and stimulus money.'
'Mark Schauer and President Obama's spending spree continues to derail our economy and country,' said Michigan Republican Party Chairman Bobby Schostak in a statement issued to the media. 'Michigan families haven't forgotten that it was Schauer who brought us the Lost Decade and helped bring Obamacare to Michigan. If Mark Schauer was serious about his promise, he would have stood up to President Obama when he was in Congress. Schauer's decision to stand next to President Obama truly underscores how wrong he is for Michigan.'
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