Obama wants Florida for a birthday present

President Obama, approaching his 51st birthday this weekend, told a Florida crowd on Thursday that winning the state in November “wouldn’t be a bad birthday present.”

Speaking at a campaign rally near Orlando, where he was serenaded by the crowd two days before his birthday, Obama said he covets the state’s 29 electoral votes in the November election.

{mosads}”If I’d known you guys were going to sing, we would have had a cake,” Obama said. “And then I would have blown out the candles. I would have made a wish — that probably would have had to do with electoral votes. Winning Florida wouldn’t be a bad birthday present.”

But Obama spent most of the speech slamming presumptive GOP nominee Mitt Romney on taxes, saying that his opponent believes cutting taxes for the wealthy “will lead to more prosperity for everyone.”

“That’s where they will take us if they win,” Obama said, adding “He’s asking you to pay more so that people like him can pay less.”

Obama reiterated, as he has in recent months, that Romney’s top-down tax policies would lead the nation back to former president George W. Bush’s policies. Obama has long argued that the focus should be on the middle class.

“They have tried to sell us this trickle-down fairy dust before,” he said.

Obama, who made an unexpected stop at a Puerto Rican restaurant in Orlando before his speech, may get his birthday wish of winning Florida. A Quinnipiac University/CBS/New York Times poll released on Wednesday found that Obama had a 51 to 45 percent lead over Romney in Florida among likely voters.