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Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, right, takes the stage with vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan during a campaign rally at the Henderson Pavilion Tuesday, Oct. 23, 2012.
By Karoun Demirjian (contact) 
Published Tuesday, Oct. 23, 2012 | 11:18 a.m.
Updated Tuesday, Oct. 23, 2012 | 1:40 p.m.
With the last of the presidential debates behind him, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney kicked off a final push to wrest the White House away from President Barack Obama with a campaign stop in Henderson.
Romney took the stage with running mate Paul Ryan shortly after 1 p.m. It was the first time the pair have campaigned together in Nevada.
Romney’s speech was one of the last opportunities he will have to make an in-person pitch to Nevada supporters and he used it to urge them to take advantage of early voting. His remarks also were a chance, coming mere hours after he tangled with Obama on foreign policy, for him to attempt a victory lap on his campaign performances.
“These debates have super-charged our campaign, there’s no question about it,” Romney said. “His campaign is taking on water and our campaign is full speed ahead.”
But he also took the opportunity to try and pull the campaign conversation back to where he has been focusing his efforts in this election: The economy.
“Can you afford four more years with 23 million Americans looking for a good job?” Romney asked. “How about four years where at the end of which we get Nevada unemployment down to 6 percent or lower?”
He pledged to be the better candidate for Nevadans hoping to see an increase in housing prices and a decrease in the cost of gas, as well as all seniors on Medicare and anyone with health insurance.
A lineup of Nevada Republicans running for office vouched for Romney’s economic plans in the leadup to his speech.
“He will put us on the path to more jobs, more opportunity and more prosperity,” said Rep. Joe Heck, the Republican running for reelection in Nevada’s 3rd Congressional District, who was obviously hoarse but managed to work the crowd with more energy than anyone other than Romney and Ryan.
“He’s got a five-point plan,” said Sen. Dean Heller, the Republican running to defend his seat in the Senate, which he’s occupied since former Nevada Sen. John Ensign resigned. “I like it and I’m sure he’s going to tell you all about it.”
Romney ran through that five-point plan and the rest of his usual bullet points for a crowd of 6,000 in Henderson, touching on everything from Obamacare to tax plans, small business and the role of energy in the economy.
Much of Romney’s message rests on the promise to bolster the economy and reduce the deficit. He has also put the blame for the country’s sluggish economic recovery on Obama.
“His vision for the future is a repeat of the past,” Romney said -- which, ironically enough, is also a charge Obama has thrown at Romney, accusing him of wanting to return the country to the Bush-administration policies in place when the recession began.
Despite the solidarity Nevada Republicans displayed with Romney onstage, the presidential candidate’s economic prescription for curing Nevada’s economic ills doesn’t always fall entirely within the comfort zone of most local Republicans.
One year ago, in what is probably his most famed local interview of this election, Romney told the Las Vegas Review-Journal’s editorial board that the housing market, which continues to be an anchor-like drag on the economy, should be allowed to “bottom out.”
Most Republicans in the state have taken great pains to firmly and repeatedly distance themselves from Romney’s words.
Romney has also been criticized for not offering enough details on the rest of his economic plan.
Many supporters cite his quarter-century of experience in the business world as the best credential to recommend him to take over the country’s top position in a time of economic turmoil.
Introducing him to the crowd at the Henderson Pavilion, Ryan called Romney a “proven job creator.”
“Wouldn’t it be nice to have a job creator in the White House?” Ryan asked. “We only have to wait for two more weeks.”
For a Nevada audience, that demonstrates Romney and Ryan’s optimism -- and belies their greatest challenge in what time remains between now and Election Day.
Nevada is a swing state, but one in which Romney has been slightly lagging in the polls. Even when Obama faltered in the first presidential debate earlier this month, the best polling Romney could muster in Nevada was a tie. The most recent poll, released Tuesday by Republican polling firm American Research Group, put Romney two points behind Obama heading into the last two weeks of the campaign.
A protracted state of disarray in the Nevada Republican Party means the ticket isn’t getting as much local help as might have been expected. Democrats hold a large voter registration advantage across the state, and in the first weekend of early voting, registered Democrats accounted for over half the voters who cast a ballot. At last count, about 16,000 more registered Democrats had turned out than registered Republicans for early voting.
“Hey Nevada -- you ready to help us win this thing?” Paul Ryan asked the crowd during his comments just before Romney’s speech. “Don’t forget, early voting already started. You get out there and cast your vote. We need your help.”
Romney also personally urged crowd to turn out the vote -- and not just any vote.
“I need you to find a neighbor that voted for Barack Obama last time,” he told supporters, also urging them to cast their votes sooner rather than later. “This is a choice we’re going to have. And what I need you to do is get out there and vote early.”
The message was amplified by the theater’s all but strategic location next door to an early voting station at the Paseo Verde Library. The two structures share a parking lot, ensuring that all in attendance passed many reminders to cast their vote soon on their way in and out of the rally.
Romney next heads to Reno for a campaign rally Wednesday morning.
The Gallup Poll keeps showing a growing Romney lead
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Obama produced his October surprise. 14 days before the election Obama produced a 20 page "Blueprint for America's Future."
Have you read it?
It has mostly Pictures of Obama spending money.
Still NO details
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Please Mitt, please keep coming back to Nevada. You are going to lose handily here..we enjoy it that you are wasting your time!
Rock on Romney/Ryan. Already early voted for you. It's time for CHANGE that improves America instead of taking us farther down the Obama cesspool.
Notacon.................... Don't take it personally but u will have to move out of the US because Romney and Ryan are going to win and the REPS might even take the Senate. Eat your heart out !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Let's make a deal. I'll move if you promise to move if the opposite comes true. According to Nate Silver, the most well renowned political statistician, I have a 70% chance of staying here in the good old USofA. You may have to try to find some other country who doesn't give a damn about their population and leaves all wealth in the hands of their elites while keeping their workers in poverty...may I suggest China or North Korea?
By the way, no chance at all at getting the Senate.
Thanks for the tip, Mitt. Already voted early - but not for you.
There is no reason to leave America.
If Romney wins it is good for America
If Obama wins then I will quit my job and encourage others to do so. I will refuse to work and send taxes to Obama's inept spending hole
So Obama has a plan
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14 days before the election Obama produced a 20 page "Blueprint for America's Future."
Have you read it? Each page is 3/4 filled with Pictures of Obama spending money. There is a picture of Obama with a resume binder, posing with big bird, another Obama in fatigues with a bayonet, and several under bright lights inside Solyendra.
I just voted, Mitt...for Obama.
By the way Mitt, we ARE voting early. Democrats are coming out in DROVES!!! High voter turnout=Obama win.
Future, I'm sure that your wife loves your politics..NOT!!
Romney may or may not win Nevada, but he is definitely winning the election. I think even Obama knows it, just read his latest plea for campaign contributions, it has a sense of defeat to it.
http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/obam...
We already voted...3 for OBAMA and straight BLUE. My husband said he'd never vote straight ticket, but is so turned off by the Repubs, he doesn't want one any where close to "leading" us again. We already reaped what they sowed for 8 yrs.
Romney believes in making the rich richer, the poor poorer.
His ENTIRE campaign is based on already debunked lies & half-truths. But that never stops the GOP.
Living in a land of denial is what keeps those longing for the 50's from crawling into their holes full of bottled water, Spam, seeds, and ammo.
Deny climate change, deny evolution, deny the birth certificate, deny the polls, deny the jobs #'s, deny the right to vote, deny healthcare, deny civil rights, deny the Tbaggers are racist.
If you are not rich and you vote for Romney, you have been hoodwinked. Money does not trickle down from the rich...it get's put in Swiss Bank Accounts. We already tried tax cuts to solve the problem, it sent us over the cliff into a free fall. (That Obama stopped and reversed.)
NOTA no problem with spouse who is quitting too - nobody needs to work under Obama or they are an absolute fool to keep paying more taxes to Obama to continue to fail in his tickle-down government.
I guess that the MUCH higher taxes during the Reagan administration (also Bush I and Clinton) also caused you to quit working. Your resume must have quite a few holes in it!
The trickle down from the Republicans is that warm, yellow fluid that they like to deposit on the middle and lower class..
Hey ByFuture...look into the past....The new talking point/term Fixed News is spewing "Trickle Down Govt." is complete bullsh*t.
Guess what trickle down govt. gets you? THE HOOVER DAM. INTERSTATE 40. THE MILITARY.
Why are those on the Right so proud to spew such nonsense?
A con should not be in the wild, wild, west and neither should a Kenyan like Obama.
should have fact checked your attendance - venue capacity is: "Seating Capacity -- The Pavilion has 2,444 fixed seats with overflow grass seating that can accommodate an additional 1,500 spectators." from Henderson Pavilion website http://www.cityofhenderson.com/cultural_... and by your pictures it was close to capacity but not quite. More proof you can't trust Romney or the mainstream media. 6k supporters my ass.
DF<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< U must a big AZZ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The romney/ryan clown show is wasting time and
money in Nevada.
Nevada will easily go OBAMA!!!
We Nevadans don't like republican flip-flopping
liars and thieves.
These two fools will steal your health care and
seniors Medicare.
How can so many low income republicans be so
stupid?
Which Romney showed up? Etch A Sketch Romney or Flip Flop Romney? Like the ole traveling medicine show that came into town selling their cure-all elixir - you can't believe a word they say or believe in the product they push - the same holds true for what team Romney is selling...I don't buy it. I don't trust the guy and he changes his position like a chameleon changes his color.
Obama must go! Romney is the best choice and the country needs him badly!
Mitt Romney is running the most dishonest campaign for the highest office in land in our life time.
Lying, distorting the facts and using misleading statements. All design to confuse the undecided and uninformed voters.
A Republican support will have more respect from independent voters by saying I support the Republian Party.
But saying you support Mitt Romney shows a lack of core values and understanding of the facts and the issue in America, and world affairs affecting Americans.
I have yet to hear a Mitt Romney support explain why they are supporting Mitt Romney's changing positions. Just like Mitt Romney, his supports change the subject.
A Mitt Romney supporter came my door two weeks ago and ask if I have made my decision. I politely said I am voting for President Obama. I then asked the person why they are supporting Mitt Romney, the person could would answer the queston, just smiled. Instead I was offered a handout with information about Mitt Romney. I ask again, and the person smiled and slowly walked away.
Not only is Mitt Romney running a dishonest campaign, the people in Romney campaign, walking the neighborhoods, are obvious told not to engage anyone not in support of Mitt Romney.
Had I said I was undecided, or I supported Mitt Romney, the person would has spend the time and explained the talking points of the campaign. That's not how the Obama campaign supporters are conduct neighborhood walks.
President wins re-election by 6 to 8 points.
:(