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Barack Obama returns to the "playing field" to help the Democrats

2022-10-28 21:45:08Kosova&Bota SHKRUAR NGA ASSOCIATED PRESS
Barack Obama returns to the "playing field" to help the Democrats
Barack Obama

Barack Obama is trying to do something he couldn't during two terms as president: help Democrats win elections held when they have control of the White House.

Mr. Obama is more popular than he was then, and now it is President Joe Biden, his former running mate, who faces the risk of losing in November.

Former President Obama will begin a tour of swing states in Georgia on Friday and then Michigan and Wisconsin, followed by stops next week in Nevada and Pennsylvania.

The itinerary, which includes rallies with Democratic candidates for federal and state offices, comes as Mr. Biden and Democrats try to thwart a tough Republican campaign to overturn Democrats' slim majorities in the House and Senate. This effort is also aimed at winning key governorship positions ahead of the 2024 presidential election.

While the positive evaluations of the American opinion on the job of President Biden have fallen below 40% and facing inflation, for senatorial candidates like Raphael Warnock of Georgia and Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada, Mr. Obama is a welcome support.

"Obama occupies a rare place in our politics today," said David Axelrod, who was one of the architects of Mr. Obama's campaigns from his days as an Illinois senator and two presidential runs.

"He definitely encourages a lot of Democrats to vote. But he is also liked by independent voters."

Neither President Biden nor former President Donald Trump can say the same, Mr. Axelrod and others note, even as both have stepped up their campaigns ahead of the Nov. 8 election.

"Barack Obama is the best orator we have in our party, and he is the most popular political figure in the country in either party," said Bakari Sellers, a South Carolina Democrat and prominent political commentator.

Mr. Obama left office in January 2017 with a favorable popular rating of 59%. The Gallup organization measured support for him a year later, showing that 63% of respondents had a positive opinion of him, the last time the organization conducted research on former presidents. This is significantly higher than the positive ratings it had in 2010, when the Democrats lost control of the House of Representatives in an election that Mr. Obama called a "defeat."

In the next election, which is held in the middle of the president's mandate, four years later, the Republicans also took control of the Senate.

Mr. Biden traveled to Syracuse, New York, on Thursday to campaign in a district up for grabs on Nov. 8.

"Democrats are building a better America for everyone with an economy ... where everyone does well," Biden said.

However, Lis Smith, a Democratic strategist, said Mr. Obama is in a better position to talk about the economy to Americans who have not decided who to vote for, or whether to vote at all.

"If it's just a straight referendum on the Democrats and the economy, then we're desperate," Ms Smith said, acknowledging that no party in power wants to run while the country faces flat inflation.

"But you have to steer the debate towards what people should choose between the two parties and highlight the differences between them."

President Obama, she said, did this in the 2008 and 2012 presidential elections "by winning over a lot of white working-class voters and others who we don't see as part of the regular supporters of the 'pro-Obama crowd.'

Between his terms as president, when mid-term elections were held, he could not repeat the same message while leading the country, but this time he is not president. Ms. Smith and Mr. Axelrod said that means President Obama can better position himself to defend the Democrats' achievements. He can talk about actions to reduce inflation, the aid package to deal with the Covid-19 virus pandemic, although the Democrats have avoided mentioning the latter since the Republicans say it is to blame for inflation.

Ms. Smith said President Obama could remind voters of years of Republican attacks on his 2010 health care law, which now appears to be a permanent and generally accepted part of the US health insurance market.

Beyond these policy arguments, Mr. Sellers noted that Obama, as the first black president, "relates particularly to African-American voters and members of other racial minority groups."

In Atlanta, he will campaign for candidates Warnock, the first black senator in the history of the state of Georgia, and Stacey Abrams, who is running to become the first black female governor of the same US state. Mr Warnock faces a tough race from Republican candidate Herschel Walker, who is also African American. Ms. Abrams is trying to unseat Republican Governor Brian Kemp, who narrowly defeated her four years ago.

With the Senate now split 50-50 between the two major parties and Vice President Kamala Harris giving Democrats the deciding vote, any Senate race on Nov. 8 could decide which party controls it for the next two years.

The increase in support for Mr. Obama is a turnaround compared to when he was president and elections similar to those that will be held on November 8, between presidential mandates, were held. Although this is not something rare. "Most of them, maybe not President Trump, but most of them are better viewed after they leave office," Mr. Axelrod said.

Notably, during the Obama presidency, former President Bill Clinton provided significant support, especially to moderates trying to survive Republican surges in 2010 and 2014. Mr. Clinton was also a key voice for President Obama's 2012 re-election bid. .

"Bill Clinton was the most valuable factor for us in 2012," Mr. Axelrod said.

Now, former President Clinton has been out of the White House for two decades, and the #MeToo movement has forced people to reevaluate his history of sexual misconduct allegations.

But Mr. Axelrod said former presidents Obama and Clinton have a similar approach.

"What unites Clinton and Obama is a kind of unique ability to clarify the complicated political arguments of the time, using reasonable terms," ​​Mr. Axelrod said.

"They know how to explain. I think you'll see that when he starts the campaign."


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