Obama Mingles with Mirage Employees on Caucus Day

ABC News’ Sunlen Miller reports: Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama visited with employees of the Mirage hotel, and encouraged all of them to caucus for him in Las Vegas today.

Obama dropped by the employee area of the hotel and casino, making stops in the uniform control (dry cleaning) center, and the employee cafeteria, greeting them with "Hola," and "Si Se Puede."

Obama responded to questions about former President Clinton’s comments today over alleged voter intimidation coming from the culinary workers. "Yeah, he’s been getting a little fired up, hasn’t he? I guess we must be doing OK. He was always really nice to me when I was 20 points down."

Obama then said he respects the rights of the workers to vote, "I want to make sure that everybody who has the right to participate in this caucusm, is participating. The Democratic Party has been about getting people involved in the process, not excluding them. Hopefully, that’s a tradition that we will maintain when we’re here in Nevada."

Obama was accompanied by several members of the Culinary Workers Union, who wore red shirts with Obama’s name on it, and one man wore a "UNITE HERE" jacket.

The Illinois senator was asked to respond to comments he made to the Reno-Gazette about Ronald Reagan, a comment the Clinton campaign capitalized on. "I think it’s fair to say that the Republicans were the party of ideas for a pretty long chunk of time, there, over the last 10 to 15 years, in the sense that they were challenging conventional wisdom," and waved off the backlash. "It was a factual statement that Ronald Reagan created a working majority for his agenda…not my agenda, but his," Obama continued. "We’re getting accustomed to this."

Obama said he anticipates the vote in Nevada to be close, and when asked about how the results in Nevada will play, leading into the South Carolina primary, Obama said, "All of these things add up."

Obama, who is leaving for Chicago, rather than going straight to South Carolina, explained that he wants to go home to see his kids.