President Obama Came Home!

President Obama was back in Chicago this past Sunday. He was here to encourage his hometown crowd to turn out to reelect Illinois Democrats Gov. Pat Quinn and Sen. Dick Durbin.

“Hello Chicago,” Obama shouted to the audience of 6,200 gathered in an arena at Chicago State University, a historically black institution in Roseland, the neighborhood where the president worked as a community organizer in the 1980s. “It’s good to be home.” Even though Obama hits his lowest approval rating ever at 40% he still shows to be a rock star amongst the crowd.
“I care about what happens here. That’s why the first thing I’m gonna do tomorrow is cast my vote to reelect Dick Durbin and give Pat Quinn four more years as governor,” Obama said. Early voting in Illinois begins Monday morning.

“This week obviously everybody’s been spending a lot of time concerned about the spread of disease,” and fighting terrorism and climate change are also top priorities. And, Obama said, “One of the central challenges is making sure the economy works for every American.”

Republicans, meanwhile, “just have bad ideas” and keep “recycling them,” the president said. “It’s not like they’re changing their tune. They’re still peddling the same thing.”

Repeating a regular part of his stump speeches, encouraging the crowd to choose hope over cynicism, Obama tied the message to his hometown. “You taught me that hope is a better choice. I learned that here,” he said. “You taught me hope is a better choice. You are the reason I had enough hope to run” for the Illinois state senate and the U.S. Senate, as well as “the audacity to actually run for the presidency of the United States,” he said.

“So don’t give up now, not after we’ve made this much progress.”

Quinn is being challenged by Republican businessman Bruce Rauner, and the two have been close in recent polls, within the margin of error.

“When we vote, we win. When the people of Illinois vote their conscience, we win,” Quinn said as he introduced the president.

Democrats are hoping that governors’ races will be a bright spot on election night, even if the Senate breaks in Republicans’ favor or the Senate majority is left to be determined by runoffs. Several Democrats are running in close races in blue or purple states, where Obama could help boost turnout.