By Michael H. Cottman
Two days before Election Day, President Barack Obama is leaving nothing to chance.
The president, a powerful and persuasive surrogate for Hillary Clinton, is making the rounds on television and radio talk shows with a convincing case for Clinton and portraying Trump, correctly, as unfit to lead the country.
Obama offers an engaging mix of serious reasoning and comic wit. With his approval ratings soaring, the president is hoping that Americans – and young Americans in particular – will listen to warnings about Trump and vote for Clinton on Nov. 8.
“Every single issue we’ve made progress on in the last eight years is going to be on the ballot in the form of this choice,” Obama told Bill Maher, host of HBO Real Time with Bill Maher. “Anybody who’s sitting on the sidelines right now, or deciding to engage in a protest vote, that’s a vote for Trump. And that would be badly damaging for this country and badly damaging for the world.”
“If you don’t have some common baseline of facts … it’s very hard to figure out how we move democracy forward,” Obama said. “If I watched Fox News, I wouldn’t vote for me either.”
The president is effective. Last week, Obama also appeared with Samantha Bee on Full Frontal to talk up Clinton and beat down Trump.
“Seeing as how this is our Halloween interview, can you tell us a spooky story about what happens if people don’t vote?” Bee asked Obama.
And Obama replied: “Donald Trump could be President.”
“If this was your best idea to reach young people, what was your worst?”
Obama didn’t miss a beat.
“If you’re worried about if you’re going to go college or not, Hillary Clinton has a very specific plan, and Donald Trump doesn’t … young people have a bigger stake in this election than anybody. I would hope that you’re willing to take about the same amount of time that you spend looking through cat videos on your phone to make sure the democracy’s working.”
And during a radio interview, Obama recently told entertainer Steve Harvey that Trump “doesn’t do his homework, doesn’t know basic facts that you’d need to know.”
Obama has brought eight years of compassion to the White House – something Trump knows nothing about.
“You had somebody who basically insulted women and then doubled down,” Obama said. “In terms of how he talks about them and talks about their weight and talks about how they look instead of the content of their character and their capabilities, which is not something that I want, not somebody I want in the Oval Office.”
Obama is right.
Trump is an opportunist, a con man who will say anything to get elected – if, in fact, he truly wants to govern. I have my doubts.
And he is still focused on courting African American voters. This week, Trump offered “a new deal for black America.”
Trump continues to push his flawed message that black Americans, generally, will “get shot” just for walking in their communities. And he keeps preaching his doom-and-gloom vision for America.
For black Americans, even for those who are not excited about Clinton’s candidacy, it’s a no-brainer on Nov. 8: A Trump administration would not champion the concerns of black Americans.
And if you are still on the fence three days before the presidential election, just listen to Obama, who combines sarcasm and wisdom with ease.
“After you leave office, have you thought about whispering in Trump’s ear, ‘you were right, I wasn’t born here,’ just to mess with him?” Samantha Bee asked Obama.
And Obama, without the slightest hesitation, replied, “I think it’s fair to say I will be organizing my post-presidency where I’m not close enough to him to whisper in his ear.”
Still thoughtful – and witty — after all these years.