I’m not sure Obama’s entry is for the better

Published: October 24, 2020 at 5:01 pm

MIAMI FLORIDA. Biden’s new weapon is not secret, but it is powerful nonetheless.

But the fact that former President Barack Obama is stepping in like a locomotive in the campaign doesn’t just have to be a good thing.

For example, it is inevitable to draw parallels between the extremely dynamic Obama and the rather mild Joe Biden, 77. That comparison doesn’t automatically turn out in Biden’s favor.

But Obama also acts as an alarm clock for the American people.

Listening to the former president is like going back to what now seems to be a bygone era. A time when the president of the United States acted as a statesman rather than a self-absorbed reality star. A time when the president wasn’t retweeting weird conspiracy theories.

A time when certain unwritten rules were applied in politics and dissidents treated each other with some respect.

Photo: MATT SLOCUM

Barack Obama intervenes as a locomotive in the campaign.

Actually, it was just four years ago, although it seems like forever.

In both his choice of words and his body language, Obama demonstrated in his speech in Philadelphia the other day, which was his first real contribution to Biden, that what America has experienced for the past four years is not normal.

I am convinced that, for a moment, many Americans woke up from hatred and the bubble of chaos in which they find themselves. However, not necessarily the voters that Biden needs to convince to win.

Little by little, Obama dismantled Trump’s ideal image of himself as the perfect president.

Obvious lies

The everyday and obvious lies. The insults of opponents and former friends.
Incompetence in handling the corona pandemic in which Trump wants to deprive 20 million Americans of their health insurance amid an ongoing pandemic just because he can’t bear to let one of Obama’s great successes hold.

Obama’s first speech was the best-formulated execution of Donald Trump’s presidency that I have heard to date, and I assume he will repeat much of it when he tries to help Joe Biden win Florida today.

But for all his energy and verbal brilliance, it is still not certain that Obama’s involvement in the campaign will make such a big difference.

The US election of Donald Trump was partly due to the country having its first black president in eight years. Many Americans could not bear it, and among them it was feared that the dominance of the whites was about to disappear.

Trump was, among other things, a reaction to Obama.

So it’s not certain that Obama is the right person to get Biden to the finish line on November 3. He was unsuccessful with Hillary Clinton, so the Trump-Obama position is 1-0.
In a way, maybe I can still make a difference.

Getting blacks and other minorities to actually vote will be an extremely important factor in the outcome. Biden is certainly popular with many black voters, but if there is anyone who can get them out of their seats and go to the polls, it is Barack Obama and his wife Michelle.

Prisoners with the right to vote

It may be enough that it manages to get a few thousand additional voters. This election will be won by whoever is best to get their own voters to actually get to the polls or put their vote by mail in the mailbox.

It is no coincidence that Obama started in Pennsylvania and now continues in Florida. Both are guide states that Trump barely won in the 2016 election.

Winning Pennsylvania is symbolically important to Biden because he sees it as his home state.

Florida is important because the state gives the winner 29 electoral votes. Trump is almost whipped to win Florida for a chance to become president. If Obama can tip the scales toward Biden, he has made a decisive effort.

This year there is an extra factor at play. Several hundred thousand former prisoners have regained their right to vote. It’s unclear how many of them will vote, but considering how even it usually is, a few tens of thousands may be enough to give Biden the victory.

Blacks and other minorities predominate among former prisoners, who tend to vote more democratically than Republicans.

Of: Wolfgang Hansson

Published: October 24, 2020 at 5:01 pm

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