FILE - In this Oct. 24, 2012, file photo, President Barack Obama speaks during a campaign rally in Las Vegas. No region in America has seen more presidential campaign commercials. Last week alone, Mitt Romney's campaign and its allies spent $3.6 million on Nevada commercials, while Obama and his supporters spent $2.7 million. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson, File)
Obama hopes Nevada turnout team trumps bad economy
FILE - In this Oct. 24, 2012, file photo, President Barack Obama speaks during a campaign rally in Las Vegas. No region in America has seen more presidential campaign commercials. Last week alone, Mitt Romney's campaign and its allies spent $3.6 million on Nevada commercials, while Obama and his supporters spent $2.7 million. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson, File)
By CHARLES BABINGTON
Associated Press /
October 29, 2012
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Obama tells voters everywhere that the U.S. economy is slowly coming back. It’s a tough sell in Nevada. But the president got a smidgen of help last week during a newscast on the Las Vegas Fox TV affiliate. ‘‘Foreclosure Rates Plummeting,’’ was the headline on a report saying Las Vegas now ranks 25th in that category among metropolitan regions.
At the early balloting site where Prekop voted last week, however, he wasn’t the only Nevadan rejecting the president’s pitch.
‘‘We need to get rid of Obama, he’s terrible,’’ said Mike Spiel, 65, a retired police officer. ‘‘The economy hasn’t gotten any better. He’s not kept his promises.’’
Rajka Shugarman, 32, a Canadian-born naturalized citizen, was almost giddy in casting her first vote in a U.S. presidential race. She said she will be crushed if Romney loses.
Obama’s warnings that Romney would limit women’s health and reproductive options are nonsense, she said. ‘‘It’s bizarre, it’s ridiculous’’ for such issues to dominate presidential campaigns, she said.
Her husband, Alan Shugarman, said he voted for Obama in 2008, and is deeply disappointed that the president didn’t improve life for middle class people.
‘‘He had the opportunity to make the change when he had the Congress,’’ Shugarman said, alluding to the first two years of Obama’s term, when Democrats controlled the House and Senate.
Obama’s team is counting on getting more voters like John Gregory, 71, to the polls. ‘‘I think he should get four more years,’’ the former Chicago police officer said, because he inherited such a huge economic mess.
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