“[Republicans] are promising the exact same agenda that resulted in the worst economy since the Great Depression,” Obama said. “An agenda of cutting taxes, mostly for millionaires and billionaires; you cut the rules for special interests, big corporations; you cut middle class families loose to fend for themselves. The same agenda that turned a record surplus into a record deficit. The same agenda that let Wall Street run wild. The same agenda that nearly destroyed our economy.”
"Perriello, Obama said, voted to provide tax relief for college tuition, to prevent credit card companies from imposing hidden fees on consumers, to invest in education and preserve teachers’ jobs, to invest in 21st-century infrastructure and for an economic stimulus package that prevented a second Great Depression."
“He didn’t go to Washington to do what was easy, what was popular,” Obama said. “He went to Washington to do what was right.”
Perriello told the crowd of 9,000 inside the Pavilion area and more than 3,000 outside its entrance that he needs their help to rekindle the energy that helped him defeat six-term incumbent Virgil H. Goode Jr. in 2008.
“Two years ago, we defied the pundits,” Perriello said. “Two years ago, we rejected everyone else’s definition of what was possible in politics and turned Virginia blue for the first time since the Civil Rights Act. And in Central and Southside Virginia, with your help, a guy with no political experience was able to step in and defeat an incumbent and be sent to Washington to be a part of that change.”
When he and Obama were elected, Perriello said, the United States was losing 740,000 jobs per month. Now, he said, they have managed to staunch the economic bleeding and the past nine months have seen private sector job growth.
“Because of what you did in 2008, you sent people to Washington who said ‘Not on our watch, Perriello said. “There will not be another economic depression on our watch.”
“I’m not here because Tom votes with me on every issue,” Obama said at the rally. “Sometimes he disagrees with me. There are times when I know that his first allegiance is not to party labels, it is not to the Democratic Party. It is to the people of the 5th District of Virginia.”
Perriello touts his independence, noting that he voted against Obama’s stance on Wall Street regulatory reform, against Obama’s budget, against the bank bailouts and has called for the firing of Obama’s Treasury secretary, Timothy Geithner.
Janet Miller, president and CEO of Search Mojo, a small business in Charlottesville, said the policies enacted by Obama and Perriello have saved her company thousands in health care costs, after previously seeing her premiums rise by as much as 58 percent. Now, she said, her company has money to invest in its infrastructure, hire more employees and give back to the community.
“This year, due to the health care reform bill, there is a 35 percent tax credit for health care premiums,” she said. “That saved my business this year nearly $25,000.”
Janet Driscoll Miller brings over a decade of search engine marketing experience to Search Mojo. She is a leading expert in her field. Janet graduated from James Madison University with a degree in Communications and Graphic Arts. She has spoken at search engine conferences including SMX Advanced, Search Engine Strategies and Pubcon, has published articles in B2B Magazine, Visibility Magazine and others, and contributes to several blogs, including Search Marketing Sage, Marketing Pilgrim and Search Engine Journal.
Obama called Perriello “one of the best congressmen Virginia’s ever had” and asked them to re-elect him to continue their work to “rebuild the middle class, put people back to work” and to “reclaim the American dream.”
“I need you guys to keep on fighting,” Obama said. “Tom needs you to keep on believing.”
Obama’s appearance was the first time he held a campaign rally on behalf of a single congressman this midterm election
cycle.
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