Obama enters ring in battle for blue wave
Deviates from norm, heavily critiques Trump
Former President Barack Obama’s scathing critique yesterday of President Trump is the first heavyweight bout by the titans of the respective parties with the midterm election the trophy.
“If (Obama) can get Democrats to turn out for the midterms, it could be a blue wave,” said pollster John Zogby. “He’s the only one who can compete with Donald Trump.”
Todd Domke, an independent political analyst, said Obama has been waiting to pounce and yesterday was the moment.
“It will mobilize the Democratic base and appeal to Independents,” Domke told the Herald. “He definitely wants to make a difference in the midterms.”
Obama’s speech was held at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign — and he didn’t hold back.
“It did not start with Donald Trump,” Obama said. “He is a symptom, not the cause. He’s just capitalizing on resentments that politicians have been fanning for years.”
The two-term Democrat then lashed out at Trump’s blunt style.
“Appealing to tribe, appealing to fear, pitting one group against another, telling people that order and security will be restored if it weren’t for those who don’t look like us or don’t sound like us or don’t pray like we do — that’s an old playbook,” Obama said.
“It’s as old as time. And in a healthy democracy, it doesn’t work,” he added. “Our antibodies kick in and people of goodwill from across the political spectrum call out the bigots and the fearmongers and work to compromise and get things done and promote the better angels of our nature.”
Longtime Democratic consultant Bob Shrum said last night Obama’s speech was a direct hit.
“He’s the ideal person to galvanize young people and minorities to go out and vote, which they don’t normally do in midterms,” said Shrum, who directs the Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics at the University of Southern California.
Obama seemed to agree, saying: “The stakes really are higher. The consequences of any of us sitting on the sidelines are more dire.” He also hit Trump over race relations.
“We’re supposed to stand up to discrimination,” Obama said. “And we’re sure as heck supposed to stand up clearly and unequivocally to Nazi sympathizers. How hard can that be, saying that Nazis are bad?”
Zogby said Trump has “captivated” Republican voters, collecting up to 87 percent support among party members. The fight for votes, he added, is officially on.
As for a possible blue wave, Zogby said he hasn’t seen it yet. But Obama’s speech was just hours old.
Trump said he fell asleep watching it. “I found he’s very good for sleeping,” Trump said at a campaign appearance in Fargo, N.D.