Obama stumps for Reid, defends economic policies

LAS VEGAS — President Obama wrapped up a two-day campaign swing yesterday with a full-throated defense of his economic policies and a warm-hearted embrace for the Senate Democratic leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, a one-time boxer who is counting on the president to help him fight his way through a tough reelection race.

“When he first told me he was a boxer, he said, ‘Barack, I wasn’t the fastest, I wasn’t the hardest-hitting, but I knew how to take a punch,’ ’’ Obama said. “He knew how to take a punch, and Harry Reid became a pretty good boxer because he would simply outlast his opponents — he had a stronger will, and I think that tells you something about the kind of person he is.’’

Reid is running for his fifth term, and this was Obama’s second trip to Las Vegas to stump for him this year. Yesterday’s speech at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, was the second side-by-side appearance for the two men this week. On Thursday night, Obama delivered a fiery endorsement for Reid at a packed fund-raiser that drew 3,000 people and raised $800,000.

There, the president took aim at Reid’s Republican opponent, Sharron Angle, calling her out for referring to the $20 billion fund set aside by BP to reimburse victims of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico as a slush fund. Earlier Thursday, Angle’s campaign had issued a statement calling the remark incorrect and saying there was “some confusion’’ about it, but Obama made it clear he was not buying it.

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2010/07/10/obama_stumps_for_reid_defends_economic_policies/