Obama takes centre stage in Biden’s bid

TWO-TERM president Barack Obama last ran for the office in 2012 but he is emerging as a central figure in the 2020 election. Democrats are eagerly embracing Obama as a political wingman for Joe Biden, who spent two terms by his side as vice-president.

Obama remains the party’s most popular figure, particularly with black voters and younger Democrats, and Biden’s presidential campaign is planning for him to have a highly visible role in the months to come. For President Donald Trump, that means an opportunity to focus the spotlight on one of his favourite political foils.

In recent days, Trump and his allies have aggressively pushed conspiracy theories about Obama designed to fire up the president’s conservative base, taint Biden by association and distract from the glut of grim health and economic news from the coronavirus pandemic.

The renewed political focus on Obama sets the stage for an election about the nation’s future that will also be about its past.

As Biden looks to Obama for personal validation, he is also running to restore some of the former president’s legacy, which has been systematically dismantled by Trump. The current president is running in part to finish that job.

Yet Trump’s anti-Obama push also frequently takes on a darker, more conspiratorial tone that goes far beyond differences in health care policy and America’s role in the world.

His current focus is on the actions Obama, Biden and their national security advisers took in the closing days of their administration, as they viewed intelligence reports about Michael Flynn, Trump’s former national security adviser.