‘I ask you to carry Hil like you carried me’
waving at the captivated crowd with a big smile.
Earlier, before he was done singing the praises of his rivalturned-friend, Obama, who himself was greeted as he took the stage with chants of “Yes we can,” saved his strongest words for Donald Trump, whom he’s taken on with increasing relish in recent weeks.
“He’s betting that if he scares enough people, he might score just enough votes to win this election,” Obama said, casting the bombastic billionaire a wannabe tyrant.
“That is another bet that Donald Trump will lose. Because he’s selling the American people short. We are not a fragile or frightful people. Our power doesn’t come from some self-declared savior promising that he alone can restore order. We don’t look to be ruled."
Obama got in a few wisecracks too, jokingly referring to the GOP nominee as “not really a plans guy” and “not really a facts guy, either,” but he was overwhelmingly serious in his tone when casting the “big choice” voters face in the fall.
“This is not your typical election. It’s not just a choice between parties or policies; the usual debates between left and right. This is a more fundamental choice — about who we are as a people, and whether we stay true to this great American experiment in self-government,” he said.
“Does anyone really believe that a guy who’s spent his 70 years on this Earth showing no regard for working people is suddenly going to be your champion? Your voice? If so, you should vote for him,” Obama quipped, before laying into Trump even harder.
“Anyone who threatens our values, whether fascists or Communists or jihadists or homegrown demagogues, will always fail in the end. That’s America. Those bonds of affection; that common creed. We don’t fear the future, we shape it, embrace it, as one people, stronger together than we are on our own,” he said. “That’s what Hillary Clinton understands.”
Obama, who reportedly went through at least six drafts of the speech in the last week alone, was introduced by Sharon Belkofer, whose son, Lt. Col Thomas Belkofer, was killed by a suicide bomber in Afghanistan in 2010 and followed Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Clinton’s running mate, who also took aim at Trump.
“He never tells you how he’s going to do any of the things he says he’s going to do. He just says ‘believe me.’ So here’s the question,” Kaine said. “Do you really believe him?” he said, followed by a a scream of, “No!” from the crowd.