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Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid tries a pork soft taco while touring the Cardenas Market at Meadows Lane and Decatur Boulevard Monday, Aug. 27, 2012.
By Tovin Lapan (contact) 
Monday, Aug. 27, 2012 | 5:22 p.m.
Reid visits Cardenas market
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Nevada Sen. Harry Reid visits Cardenas supermarket in Las Vegas on Monday, Aug. 27, 2012, to stump for President Barack Obama's re-election campaign.
Shopping carts rattled to a halt Monday afternoon as wide-eyed grocery shoppers at Cardenas spotted Sen. Harry Reid walking the aisles and sampling a variety of foods.
The U.S. Senate majority leader took a 30-minute supermarket tour that doubled as an excuse to tout President Barack Obama’s policies and bring up Mitt Romney’s taxes again while the Republican Party is focused on its national convention in Tampa, Fla.
After nibbling on pork rinds, red gelatin, pork tacos and other fare, Reid conducted a short news conference at the front of the store, 4700 Meadows Lane.
Flanked by neatly stacked assortments of apples, honeydew melons, pineapples and mangoes, Reid, D-Nevada, shared the story of Jesus Cardenas, who came to the United States in 1957 under the Bracero temporary workers program. After opening his first supermarket in California in 1979, Cardenas now has more than 25 stores in California and Nevada.
“We’re always looking for great American success stories. Here’s one,” Reid said of the chain of supermarkets, which includes three branches in Las Vegas that employee approximately 500 people. “This is a remarkable success story.”
Obama’s campaign touted Cardenas as an example of the president’s polices helping small businesses. One of those was the Work Opportunity Tax Credit, an incentive for private businesses to hire new employees from a range of groups that traditionally have higher rates of unemployment, including veterans, those living below the poverty line and at-risk youths.
Romney, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee, has touted his experience running the private equity firm Bain Capital as reason why he is better equipped to resuscitate the flagging economy than Obama, and those helping the former Massachusetts governor in his campaign are trumpeting his business acumen.
“(I) hope people understand who Mitt Romney is,” Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida said Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” “Because his business career has been well documented and his success is extraordinary in the business realm, but he's so much more than that. He was a successful governor. The job he did at the Olympics in Salt Lake City was extraordinary by all accounts. “
Prompted by the media, Reid reiterated his call for Romney to release more of his past federal tax returns, saying he has provided detailed accounts of his own finances and it was what Romney’s father did when he ran for president. So far, Romney, a multimillionaire, has resisted releasing more than his 2010 federal tax return and a partial 2011 tax return. Romney’s father, when he ran for president in the 1960s, released 12 years of his tax returns. Obama has released a dozen years of his tax returns.
Reid last month said a source close to Bain told him Romney had not paid any taxes for a 10-year period. The comment unleashed a torrent of criticism upon Reid from Romney’s supporters.
“The issue is not Harry Reid; the issue is Mitt Romney. I’m not running for president,” Reid said.
Asked to comment on the Republican Party in general in light of the GOP convention this week, Reid said the party had become obstructionist.
“The way to get things done is compromise,” said Reid, who mentioned votes on the Dream Act on which he received no Republican support. “That’s something they’ve forgotten.”
Reid, who bought two cakes for the Obama campaign staff and his own staff, stopped during his supermarket tour to shake hands, take pictures and chat with several shoppers.
Marlene Marcus and Lois Nolen, who were shopping together, stopped Reid to offer their support and foreshadowed his latter comments in the news conference.
“The Republicans have done everything they can from day one to try and make the president fail,” Nolen said. “They’ve attacked him, and refused to compromise.”
Marcus nodded at her friend’s words.
“That’s why we support (Senate candidate) Shelley Berkley,” Marcus said. “We need more Democrats in Congress.”
Obviously not a Kosher Mormon.
Harry the Joke of Nevada
Reid & Oblamer always after the food stamper vote...
What we need is more politicians that do what is best for the 99%.
repugnicans are only for the 1%.
It is that simple.
I'd rather see Obama's grades.
Harry the "obstructionist". Here he is obstructing Nevada jobs.
http://www.lvrj.com/opinion/bill-brings-...
The last thing American needs is anyone in this administration near your children.
Senator Reid do you ever visit lets say a grocery store in Summerlin? maybe that would put a different light on the responses you may get. How about Smith's on Lake Mead and Rampart. That would be good place to go. Lots of seniors and middle class folks trying to get by.
Hmmmm.....nothing new coming from those who sleep over on the right. They're still licking their wounds from Harry's win in the 2010 Senate election...
Hey right-wingers! Get use to it....accept it! Harry is one of our senators & will be for the next four years. He may or may not decided to run for re-election in 2016.
Harry has done many, many great things for this state and will continue to create jobs & move the economy forward despite everything that the Republicans are trying to do to keep that from happening....
GREAT JOB HARRY! KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK!
Senator Harry Reid Said we lost the war in Iraq and as usual is not visiting The Middle Class American's
The fact that Nevada even has harry reid as their senator speaks volumes to the incredible idiocy and near retardation level of the majority of nevada voters...and that cannot be disputed.