Palin, Obama rally for votes ten days from election day

At a Republican rally in Orlando, Florida, the Tea Party favorite and former vice presidential candidate invoked former Republican President Ronald Reagan as an example of the kind of conservative policies she said America needed and called on her audience to get out and work for Republican candidates.

"This is when we kick it in gear. We have to dig deep. We have to know, these candidates have to know, that you are there for them, that you are doing all that you can in order to get that vote out. You've got to put in those 16, 18, 29 hour days and it does feel good to know, especially on November 3rd, that you are doing now and you will have done everything that you can within your power to get the vote out. And, it's in order to restore our republic and to renew America," Palin said, drawing cheers of approval from the partisan crowd.

With many ordinary Americans still feeling the pain of the recession in their daily lives, Obama and the Democrats face the prospect of big losses in the November 2 midterm congressional elections.

Many pollsters predict Republicans will win enough seats to take control of the House of Representatives, which could put the brakes on Obama's legislative agenda. Surveys show Democrats are also likely to lose Senate seats but could keep a slim majority in the chamber.

Palin, who is widely thought to be weighing a run for president in 2012, repeatedly pressed the idea of the November 2 vote being a referendum on Obama's performance in office, calling the upcoming ballot "the election of a lifetime".

"We have life and death choices coming up on November 2nd, policies that are hinging on who it is that we send to Washington, D.C., and that we fill up our state houses with. This is paramount. This is the election, I think, of our lifetime," Palin said, speaking after addresses by Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele and Florida's Senate candidate Marco Rubio.

Against a background in Florida of a more than 11 percent jobless rate and a high number of home foreclosures, Rubio is comfortably leading independent Charlie Crist and Democrat Kendrick Meek in the Sunshine State, an influential swing state in elections.

At the beginning of her speech, Palin suggested Floridians watch her upcoming "docu-series" reality show, "Sarah Palin's Alaska", which will debut next month and focus on the northern state's outdoor attractions.

Shortly after Palin's appearance in Orlando, U.S. President Barack Obama took the stage at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis to rally for Democrats and stump for former U.S. Senator Mark Dayton who is running for governor of Minnesota.

"It looks like you are kind of fired up and I need you fired up because in just ten days you have the chance not just to set the direction of the state, but also to help to determine the direction of this country not just for the next two years, but the next five years, the next ten years, the next twenty years," Obama said.

With the midterm elections ten days away, Obama told the crowd his former colleague in the Senate understood the needs of the middle class. He also repeated his campaign trail rhetoric that people needed to get out, work for Democratic candidates and vote.

"I need you to keep fighting, I need you to keep working and I need you to keep believing and if you knock on some doors again, if you make some phone calls again, if you talk to your neighbors again, if you go to vote again, then I promise you, we won't just win this election, we won't just have Mark as governor, but, you and I together, we are going to restore the American dream for future generations," Obama said.

Dayton is in a virtual dead heat with GOP nominee for governor, Tom Emmer, according to the latest Rasmussen Reports, after former Republican governor of Minnesota Tim Pawlenty decided not to run for re-election and is considered a possible candidate for U.S. president in 2012.