President Obama poked fun at the checkered political history of his hometown Chicago on Tuesday, reminding voters in Wisconsin to vote early — but not often.
“You can only vote once — this isn’t Chicago, now,” Obama said at a rally in Milwaukee for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mary Burke.
Both parties are upping their early voting efforts, especially with low turnout expected on Election Day.
Obama was brought in to fire up the Democratic base, traveling to a ward in which he carried 99 percent of the vote in the 2012 presidential contest against Republican Mitt Romney.
Just a week before the Nov. 4 midterm elections, the White House has opted to deploy the president to liberal-leaning areas to help Democratic governors in competitive races. Obama will not appear with vulnerable Senate Democrats ahead of elections that will largely shape his final two years in office.
Former President Bill Clinton and first lady Michelle Obama also have campaigned on Burke’s behalf in Wisconsin. Democrats see Burke’s campaign against Republican Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, a possible 2016 White House candidate, as one of the few marque races next month in which they can pull an upset.
Obama, seen as an albatross for other Democrats, basked in his favored political status in Milwaukee on Tuesday night.
The president said that Republicans’ policies on women’s issues were out of the “Mad-Men” era and told the friendly crowd they had a “chance to choose a governor who doesn’t put political ideology first.”
And Obama dusted off the hope and change message that propelled his first run to the White House.
“If you just sit home and complain, then of course nothing is going to change,” Obama said. “Cynicism has never ended a war, it has never cured a disease.”
