If those who swept Barack Obama into the White House needed a pre-midterm energizer, what happened in Germantown yesterday connected the jumper cables.
The Roots opened for Obama and Vice President Joe Biden before a revved-up crowd of locals — Democrats in union and campaign T-shirts just four weeks from election day. The crowd saw the difference they made in ’08, but can they still bring it?
Erica DeVose, a teacher in the North Penn School District, hopes so. She sees a move — most notably championed by Republican New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie — to tinker with teachers’ pensions and came to this rally as a show of support for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Dan Onorato.
“There’s a sense of complacency. People don’t seem too worried about midterms, but they should be,” she said. “It hasn’t flown under my radar as an educator, but I’ve seen it flying under others.”
Germantown’s Larry Teachey doesn’t pay the perceived antagonism much mind. He talks health care and the mess his predecessor left behind.
“People were standing out in line for hours to get in here,” the school custodian said, pointing at a field with hundreds upon hundreds of cheering voters. “You got that Tea Party and all, but people need to give him a chance. He’s doing the best he can with the mess that was waiting for him.”
‘I need you as fired up as ’08’
President Barack Obama used the rally in Germantown yesterday to energize his base and re-establish his oratory voice to rail about GOP opposition stunting recovery for political gain.
“Two years ago, you defied common wisdom in Washington,” Obama said. “The only thing the election did was give us a chance to change things. I need you as fired up as you were in ’08.
“You didn’t elect me to do what was easy. You elected me to do what’s right,” he said. “We need to fight their millions of dollars with our millions of voices. If everybody who fought so hard for change in 2008 show up in 2010, I’m confident we’ll win.”
