Obama took his sweet time to endorse Joe Biden after the Democratic primary. He was also pretty quiet throughout the summer. Now he is going to step up and start campaigning for Biden at the last minute.
Doesn’t it seem a little late for this?
Obama still has star power in Democratic circles, but it’s hard to know if he can move the needle in any meaningful way.
Vandana Rambaran reports at FOX News:
Obama to stump for Biden less than two weeks before electionFormer President Barack Obama will head to Philadelphia on Wednesday to campaign on behalf of the Biden-Harris ticket, his first appearance on the trail thus far.With just two weeks until the election, Obama will rally support in a battleground state that President Trump won by less than a percentage point in 2016.Current polls show Democratic opponent Joe Biden leading Trump by more than five percentage points, according to a Real Clear Politics average. Philadelphia bolstered Obama’s White House victories in both 2008 and 2012, when Biden was his running mate.Meanwhile, vice presidential hopeful Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., has tweaked her campaign events after multiple staffers tested positive for the coronavirus, but her husband, Doug Emhoff, will hold a rally in Philadelphia on Saturday.
It’s rather telling that of all the places Obama could do this, he’s going to Pennsylvania. Democrats were deeply wounded by Trump’s victory there in 2016 and desperately want to move it back into the blue state column.
Oh, and here’s a fun reminder. In 2016, the Obamas and the Clintons were in Philadelphia on election night. Didn’t seem to help in the end, did it?
Audrey McNamara of CBS News has more:
Obama to hit the campaign trail for Biden-HarrisThe Biden campaign announced Friday that President Obama will join the campaign trail for the first time next week to campaign on behalf of his former vice president. Mr. Obama will travel to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on Wednesday, October 21, according to the campaign.Liberty Mutual customizes your auto and home insurance so you only pay for what you need.Mr. Obama has largely stayed away from the 2020 presidential race, but did make an appearance at the virtual Democratic National Convention in August. Mr. Obama praised Biden in a speech on the third night of the convention, and offered a rare rebuke of President Trump.”I have sat in the Oval Office with both of the men who are running for president. I never expected that my successor would embrace my vision or continue my policies. I did hope, for the sake of our country, that Donald Trump might show some interest in taking the job seriously; that he might come to feel the weight of the office and discover some reverence for the democracy that had been placed in his care,” Mr. Obama said. “But he never did.”
Trump has not only undone much of Obama’s legacy, he has also outdone him on economic and foreign policy.
Can we blame him for sounding so bitter?
Trump doesn’t seem too concerned.
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