President Obama continued to hammer his Republican rivals on Friday, poking fun at their extended battle for the presidential nomination, at a campaign event playing to a hometown crowd in Chicago.
"You might have noticed that we have some guests in Illinois this week. Apparently things haven't quite wrapped up on the other side, so there's actually some interest in the primary that we have here on Tuesday," said Obama to laughter at the Palmer House Hilton Hilton.
Obama is hitting the campaign trail hard Friday, appearing at — at least — four fundraisers in two states. He first traveled first to Illinois and will spend the rest of the afternoon in Atlanta, including at an event at hosted at Tyler Perry Studios with a performance by Cee Lo Green.
"My message to all of the candidates is 'welcome to the Land of Lincoln,' because I'm thinking maybe some Lincoln will rub off on them while they are here," Obama said.
He praised former President Lincoln for launching the transcontinental railroad, setting up land-grant colleges and creating the National Academy the Sciences in the "midst of the Civil War," during his remarks.
"Lincoln, the first Republican president, knew that if we as a nation through our federal government didn't act to facilitate these things that they likely wouldn't happen and as a result we'd all be worse off," he said.
The president has aimed to paint the GOP field as backward thinking and without vision in recent days. Without naming names Thursday, he said his Republican opponents could have been founding members of the
"Flat Earth Society" during a speech on energy policy.
Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney is leading the GOP field in Illinois, where the four remaining candidates are vying for votes in the Midwest state's Tuesday's primary, according to a
Fox Chicago News-We Ask America poll released Friday.
Romney is at 37 percent, followed by Rick Santorum at 31 percent, Newt Gingrich at 14 percent and Ron Paul at 8 percent.
Obama's campaign visit to the state comes on the heals of Romney's stop to Pancakes Eggcetera restaurant in Rosemont, Ill., for a meet-and-greet Friday morning.
