
NEWARK, N.J. – President Obama spent Sunday trying to convince New Jersey voters that a ballot cast for Jon Corzine, their less-than-popular Democratic governor, was a vote for him. An afternoon event at the Prudential Center in downtown Newark drew over 10,000 voters, most of them black, who took up chants of "Yes We Can!" and booed mentions of former president George W. Bush as if they were back on the 2008 campaign trail.
Following up on a campaign blitz that has targeted New Jersey residents who voted for the first time last November, the Sunday rally co-opted the frenzied, party-like atmosphere of Obama's historic campaign and inauguration. A gospel choir and a troupe of Latin dancers entertained attendees before the speakers arrived, and an energetic DJ spun hip-hop hits and Michael Jackson classics. "If you miss Michael Jackson, make some noise!" he cried, and was met with a deafening roar eclipsed only when the president took the stage.
Corzine's campaign hopes the lingering image of the governor standing beside Obama will bring out voters who were not enthused by his first term in office. Final polls Sunday showed him trailing his opponent, Republican Chris Christie, by
six percentage points. The disparity in Corzine's and Obama's popularity among New Jersey Democrats was easy to see when attendees let out enthralled screams whenever the president was mentioned, but had to be repeatedly prodded to wave their signs for Corzine. They kept close watch on the arena's exits, hoping for an early glimpse of Obama. Some narrated the proceedings to friends and relatives on their cellphones, but none in my hearing mentioned Corzine even once.
The speakers, who included several New Jersey representatives and Newark Mayor Cory Booker, stuck to a carefully scripted message, one by one characterizing Corzine as the proprietor of Obama's vision and painting Christie, as a representative of the Bush years. Along with a similar event in Camden earlier in the day, the Newark rally was the Corzine campaign's most explicit attempt yet to associate the governor with Obama. Signs handed out at the rally featured the president's name above those of Corzine and his running mate Loretta Weinberg.
"At this point, you have heard all the arguments, you've seen the ads," Obama said. "You're tired of the ads. This guy has been working as hard as he can, and the question now is how you will respond."
Obama seemed to feel that he was among friends, and joined in the sharply partisan tone of the rally. Both Corzine and Weinberg had blamed the economic crisis on the "trickle-down economics" of the Bush years, and Obama picked up where they left off. He implied that Corzine's unpopularity stemmed from the difficult choices he has had to make in dealing with the "worst financial crisis since the Great Depression."
"That didn't start on Jon Corzine's watch, and it didn't start on my watch," the president said. "I'm not interested in re-litigating the past. We're willing to clean up after somebody else's mess. But if I'm holding the mop, if Jon Corzine is holding the mop, the least the other guy can do is not tell us we're holding the mop wrong, not mopping fast enough, or say we're using a socialist mop."
"This crisis that we are getting ourselves out of came about of because of the same theories, the same lax regulation, the same trickle-down economics, that the other guy's party has been peddling for years," Obama said.
The White House has
downplayed the notion that the New Jersey gubernatorial race is a referendum on Obama's first nine months in office, but the speakers Sunday presented it to voters as exactly that. They cried out for Democratic solidarity, reminding voters that the country is closely following the race. "We need to make a statement about what New Jersey thinks about President Obama," Rep. Donald Payne said. Weinberg began her speech by dramatically welcoming voters to a "united Democratic Party in the blue state of New Jersey."
Christie, meanwhile, was campaigning in North Middletown, less than 40 miles away. He criticized Corzine's partnership with Obama, saying the governor "should go back to D.C. on Air Force One," the
New York Times reported.
The hullaballoo turned off at least one Corzine voter, who was struggling to make her way through a crowded train station as crowds from the rally streamed out. "I was voting for Corzine, but not anymore," she complained into her cellphone. "This little stunt is it."
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