Barrack Obama – The former president personally campaigned for the first time Wednesday in two events supporting Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, urging voters not to become complacent.
Former President Obama made a passionate appeal for his vice president and a damning indictment against his successor on Wednesday at a rally in Pennsylvania, telling Philadelphia that a failure to demonstrate Democrat Joe Biden forcefully would have repercussions for generations. “We can’t be complacent. I’m not interested in polls. There was a whole series of polls last time. It didn’t work out,” Obama told a meeting with people who were socially remote in their cars. ‘Because a lot of people stayed at home – and got lazy and complacent. Not this election. Not this time,” Obama bellowed.
“Joe Biden has concrete plans and policies,” including a plan to address the pandemic. At the same time, Trump “cannot even take the basic steps to protect himself,” Obama said, then laid into Trump for reportedly referring to slain military members as “suckers and losers.”
“Who does that?” Obama said. “With Joe and Kamala at the helm, you’re not going to have to think about the crazy things they say every day. That’s worth a lot,” Obama said, referring to the vice-presidential candidate Sen. Kamala Harris of California. “You might be able to have Thanksgiving dinner without arguing,” Obama said, drawing approving honks of ralliers’ horns.
Obama referred to Trump’s retweet of a bizarre conspiracy theory that Biden killed Navy SEALs to cover up the murder of a duplicate of Osama Bin Laden.
The events marked Obama’s first time personally campaigning for his former vice president, and the fact that Obama made his first stop was an indicator of how vital Keystone State was in choosing the next president.
And out of the office for nearly four years, Obama showed that he could still wind up a crowd and generate enthusiasm Biden tends not to draw from a campaign event. Obama marveled at the revelation that Trump has a Chinese bank account – Fox News “would have called me” Beijing Barry “” if he did, Obama said – and criticized Trump for his attention to Twitter on the presidential leadership.
“This is not a reality show. This is reality, and the rest of us have had to live with the consequences of him proving himself incapable of taking the job seriously,” Obama said.
Polls show Biden ahead in Pennsylvania: A CNN poll released on Wednesday had the former vice president ahead, 53 percent to 43 percent, among likely voters. But Biden’s campaign warned they believe the race is much closer and urged supporters not to settle.
Trump is also clearly concerned about Pennsylvania, telling voters in Erie on Tuesday evening that he only had to come to Pennsylvania due to the pandemic.
Obama implored voters at the rally not to take any leading role in the polls for granted and deliver a clear message that the state wants to leave Trump.
“I am asking you to remember what our country can be when your elected officials act responsibly,” Obama said. “I’m asking you to believe in Joe’s ability, in Kamala’s ability to lead us out of these dark times.
“We can’t just imagine a better future. We’ve got to fight for it. We’ve got to vote like never before and leave no doubt about what this country stands for,” Obama said.
In a previous “Shop Talk” with black leaders in Philadelphia, Obama spoke of the challenges of getting young people, especially young African Americans, to vote and let young people know their power.
“When I was 20 years old, I wasn’t that woke … because I had other stuff that I was interested in. We won’t go into all the details,” Obama said with a laugh.
“A lot of times, I think our young men – they may try to give a rationale for why they’re not active and involved, but the truth is they’re not active and involved because they are young and distracted,” said the former president, who wore a mask during the entire time he spoke.
Obama said he was “very proud” of his presidency breaking barriers, “but I did not resolve systemic racism immediately because I was president,” he added. His administration was able to make things better; he said – not just because of what was being done at the very top, but also because of what was being done through US lawyers, not by “throwing the book” on non-violent offenders.
“The answer for young people, when I talk to them, is not that voting makes everything perfect. It’s just that it improves everything,” Obama said.
After the loss of Clinton, political postmortems blamed the declining turnout among black voters as part of the reason for the result. Obama, who garnered a record turnout among African Americans in 2008, reminded black leaders what could happen if they could exercise their moral leadership.
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