The cavalry arrives. Air support arrives. Barack Obama arrives.
With the Republican forces advancing on all fronts, the Democratic troops resort to their largest caliber weapon at the last minute. To a former president, who was going to say it, as a great reinforcement in the final battle.
“We love you!” the crowd yelled upon his arrival at the Gateway Center stadium in Atlanta, Georgia, on Friday. "I love you too," he replied. “But I want your vote!”
It was the initial greeting of his reunion with the bases of his party on the penultimate weekend before the mid-term legislative elections on November 8. Obama, much more popular now than when he occupied the White House with Joe Biden as vice president, was treated with star honors on the three stages he stepped on and conquered in the first part of his tour of states with close fights in the Senate races. , Congress, and state governments: Georgia, Michigan, and Wisconsin.
As in the most successful stories and shows, Obama combined drama and comedy to underline the three messages that he clearly wanted to get through to his staff, especially independent and doubtful voters: go vote and do it soon; At stake is the survival of democracy; With Donald Trump at the helm, Republicans are not interested in solving problems.
The first black president of the United States admitted the particular difficulty of the moment the country is experiencing and how difficult it is to convince voters. "I don't know if it's also because I'm older and grayer," he began Saturday before thousands of people at the Renaissance Institute in Detroit, Michigan. The fans that he had behind his back replied with compliments. "You're very good!" One was heard saying. He softened his expression by transmitting it over the microphone: "They say around here that I'm still fine... I won't tell Michelle... she already knows!" She joked.
The former president, a luxury substitute for an incumbent president who, due to his low approval ratings, has opted for a low campaign profile based on modest acts, made fun of the Republican opponents who are hot on the heels of the candidates of his party that was to support.
Of former football laureate Herschel Walker, an opponent of Georgia Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock, he said: “Walker was a great sportsman. Does that make him the best to represent you in the Senate? Let's imagine he shows up at the airport, someone sees him and says, 'Hey, there's Herschel Walker! Let's get him to fly the plane. Or that he shows up at the hospital, and they're like, 'Look, that's Walker, give him a scalpel!' You wouldn't like that, would you?" Obama was referring to the political inexperience "and no interest in learning" of the conservative candidate who days ago was accused of paying for two abortions to ex-girlfriends despite radically opposing this practice: "She is a celebrity who wants to be a politician," Obama stressed. To which Walker responded to the press: "I am not a celebrity, I am a warrior of God."
The former president recalled how the first time he ran for Congress he lost the primaries by 30 points! “You know what I didn't do? I did not denounce a fraud nor did I push a mass to invade the Capitol, ”he said in an obvious allusion to Trump. “What I tried to do was find out where I had gone wrong. And the second time I won!”
The crowd almost went crazy. The same as when his idol asked to go to the polls: “I need you to get off the couch! Put down your phone and give TikTok a break! Vote! "... More shouts and applause. And so with each grace that he made, each story that he narrated and each lapidary phrase that he pronounced.
But perhaps the effusions of Obama's public, who will continue his tour in Nevada tomorrow, were not only due to his catchy phrases and curious stories; also to the charm that he retains and the energy that he still exudes. It is the shot that the Democratic bases were needing. An injection of enthusiasm that, however, many fear, may come a little late.
