.@POTUS finishes his final solo campaign rally of 2016 with story of how he got his "fired up, ready to go" chant. https://t.co/sPEZyFoX4S
— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) November 7, 2016
President Obama capped off his final solo campaign rally Monday with a dose of nostalgia: his signature chant of “fired up, ready to go.”
Speaking to a boisterous crowd of Hillary Clinton backers in New Hampshire, Obama retold the story of how the chant came to be during the his first run for president in 2008.
Nothing was gong right for the then-Illinois senator during an appearance before a tiny audience in rural South Carolina until a supporter named Edith Childs blurted out the cheer.
“I’m starting to get fired up,” Obama recalled to the crowd of 7,000 at the University of New Hampshire. “I’m starting to feel like I’m ready to go. And all those negative thoughts and all those bad memories start to drift away.”
Obama turned back to the present, saying that the story shows “how one voice can change a room.”
“And if it can change a room, it can change a city,” Obama continued, voice rising. “And if it can change a city, it can change a state. And if it can change a state it can change the nation. And if it can change a nation, it can change the world.”
The president then led the crowd in the chant.
“Let’s go finish what we started, let’s go elect Hillary Clinton,” the president exclaimed.
Obama is trying to energize voters in New Hampshire, a state he won twice but where Clinton is clinging to a narrow lead against Republican nominee Donald Trump.
Trump and his running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, are headlining an Election Eve rally in Manchester later Monday night.
A win for Clinton in the Granite State could help cut off Trump’s path to the 270 electoral votes he needs to become president.
Obama also went after the GOP nominee for calling for Clinton to be jailed.
“Maybe Putin think it’s OK. I don’t think it’s OK,” he said in a shot at Trump’s perceived coziness with the Russian leader.
Obama is making a last-minute blitz for Clinton in the final hours of the campaign. He headlined a rally in Michigan earlier Monday and will appear at a joint rally in Philadelphia with the Clintons and first lady Michelle Obama.
“This is going to be my last big event. We have one in Philly tonight, but you know, Michelle is talking so I won’t get any attention,” the president joked.