(AFP/Getty Images)
SHAKIN’ ALL OVER: President Obama reaches out to voters in Mentor, Ohio, in the campaign’s last weekend, while Mitt Romney supporters at a rally in Portsmouth, NH, back The Post’s choice yesterday. (
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President Obama weaved superstorm Sandy and its impact into his closing re-election pitch yesterday, making a call for unity even as he faced criticism for campaigning during the cleanup from the horrific disaster.
“No matter how bad a storm is, no matter how tough times are, we’re all in this together. We rise and fall as one nation, one people,” the president said.
Obama said the storm showcased “heroes running into buildings, wading into water to help their fellow citizens,” and — in what could have been a laudatory reference to himself — “leaders of different political parties working together to fix what’s broken.”
Campaigning in Lake County, Ohio, which he narrowly carried in 2008, Obama sought to reassure voters who could decide the presidency, telling them, “You know me.”
“When you elect a president, you don’t know what kind of emergencies may happen, you don’t know what problems he or she may deal with,” Obama said. “But you do want to be able to trust your president.”
His opponents said it was not the time for speech-making.
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, a Mitt Romney backer, urged the White House and other politicians yesterday to “stop declaring victory, stop giving speeches.”
And Romney adviser Kevin Madden said: “We’ve made sure that we don’t look at the hurricane through a political lens. If the Obama campaign is, that’s up to them. But we’re not.”
Obama started his day in Washington with a trip to FEMA headquarters, during which he promised more assistance was on the way amid new images of gas shortages and ongoing suffering of those without power.
He told storm victims they still had “a long way to go.”
“In between every single event, he basically walks off the stage, gets on a phone call with governors, mayors and first-responders,” said Obama spokeswoman Jen Psaki.
Other aspects of the campaign rhetoric took on the air of a grudge match yesterday as Romney and Obama dashed through campaign battleground states.
With just three days to get his message to voters, Romney ripped Obama for saying at an Ohio rally that “voting is the best revenge.” Obama had made the comment Friday as an Ohio crowd booed a mention of Romney and Obama told them, “Don’t boo — vote.”
“Vote for revenge?” Romney asked yesterday.
“Let me tell you: Vote for love of country,” Romney told a cheering crowd in New Hampshire.
Cranking up his get-out-the-vote operation in Milwaukee, Obama appeared at a rally with singer Katy Perry, who sported a racy skin-tight blue dress with the Obama slogan “Forward” splashed across it as she belted out “Firework” and other hits.
“If you’re over 18, and you have a real cool outfit and you wear it on Tuesday, you tweet me and I’ll retweet it,” Perry told the crowd.
The feverish campaigning came as a new NBC poll in Ohio had Obama up 6 points, 51 to 45 percent. In Florida, a new Mason-Dixon poll gave Romney a 51-45 lead, but an NBC poll in the state had Obama up 49-47. Romney led in only two of 16 swing state polls that came out Friday.
Obama’s polling lead in Ohio is forcing Romney to seek out new paths to victory. He plans to campaign in Pittsburgh today, on Democratic turf where polls have tightened.
The president also stumped in Iowa and Virginia, while Romney campaigned in New Hampshire, Iowa, and Colorado.
Obama is “offering excuses. I’m offering a plan. I can’t wait to get started,” Romney told a rally in Portsmouth, NH. “The door to opportunity is open, and we’re going to walk through it. Come walk with me. Walk together to a better place.”