ORLANDO — Former President Bill Clinton spoke at an Obama rally Monday morning at the University of Central Florida, encouraging young college students to vote early.
The former president was expected to open for President Barack Obama, but with Hurricane Sandy threatening the Northeast, Obama cancelled his appearance to return to Washington, leaving Clinton to address supporters.
“Vote for the man with a plan, vote for Barack Obama,” said Clinton, in front of thousands of students at UCF’s Memory Mall. “This guy has taken on more tough problems in less time and gotten good results, but we couldn’t get well in four years.”
Early voting began on Saturday and with election day one week away, Clinton encouraged many young UCF students to vote early.
“If you had a hole to fill, would you dig it deeper before you fill it,” said Clinton on Romney’s economic policy.
Clinton promoted “Obamacare,” saying that Romney is criticizing the same plan that Romney himself established when he was Massachusetts’ governor.
“Let’s look at what this terrible, terrible law has done, oh it’s awful,” said Clinton on Mitt Romney’s attack on Obama’s health care reform law.
“For the last two years, for the first time in 51 years, medical cost inflation has been 4 percent or less in two years in-a-row,” he added.
Chants of “four more years” echoed the Memory Mall, as students showed support for Obama’s re-election.
Clinton added that Obama proposes a better health care plan for America and will not turn Medicare into a voucher program, which the Obama campaign has scrutinized the Romney campaign for suggesting.
Other talking points included the rising costs of going to school.
“Mr. Romney wants to gut student aid,” said Clinton on Romney’s education policy.
“The most important thing President Obama has done is to reform the student loan program and allow it to initiate to help universities and colleges cut the rate of inflation in half in college costs,” said Clinton. “No college graduate have to take a job just to pay a bill.”
The event kicked off with replacement opener Charlie Crist, former Florida governor, who hyped up the crowd by comparing Obama’s current policies to that Romney’s.
According to Crist, “Jobs now are up, unemployment now is down. Improving education, up, blaming teachers, down. Barack Obama, up, Mitt Romney, down. Moving forward, not backwards.”
