Posted on 10/18/2017 11:27:11 PM PDT by Olog-hai
Former President Barack Obama is returning to the campaign trail to stump for Democratic gubernatorial candidates in New Jersey and Virginia as they gear up for next months elections.
Thursdays events mark the first time the former president is stepping back into the political spotlight since leaving the White House.
Unlike more low-key appearances earlier this year, Obamas foray into two states wont be a one-and-done. He is planning more public appearances as the year closes, and preparation for the 2018 midterm elections begins. [ ]
Obama is hoping to sway voters in New Jersey and Virginia, the only two gubernatorial races this year. Both Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, a Democrat, and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a Republican, are term-limited. Those Nov. 7 races will be considered a bellwether of Democrats strength in the face of President Donald Trumps victory last year. [ ]
Obamas popularity is still undeniable. In an August NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, 51 percent of Americans said they have a favorable opinion of Obama, while 35 percent had a negative opinion. In the same poll, 36 percent said they had a positive opinion of Trump and 52 percent had a negative opinion.
(Excerpt) Read more at hosted.ap.org ...
Yes go campaigning as healthcare premiums are currently skyrocketing. As if he ever helped Dems get elected. Under his presidency the Dem party became decimated outside of the large urban areas.
Bring it on Dumbo. You go down as the worst president in American history and a shining example that diversity hiring is an epic fail where it is tried.
Obama believes his own hype.
>Snicker<
looks like the Democrats are leading both races by 14 points.
Maybe Obama campaigning will help the Republicans.
(Obamas legacy of losing: Democrats decimated in Congress, DNC in disarray)...plus hypocrisy
The kiss of death from Obama ...
Well, this is going to be awkward for a lot of squirming ‘rats who actually want to win.
If Barky wants dems to win, he should campaign for republicans.
awesome- He helped lose the presidency for hillary (by having such an awful 8 years himself as president that noone wanted to keep going down that path of destruction)- and now he intends to do the same for governors-
This should really hurt the Democrats!
Will he do as well as he did for brexit ?
Chump to stump for more chumps.
I’m not sure even Obama’s odious endorsement can prevent the democrats from winning in NJ. It’s a blue state with a Republican governor who is despised by pretty much everyone, in both parties. Christie’s beach debacle this summer all but guarantees the democrat’s victory here.
Obamas popularity is still undeniable. In an August NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, 51 percent of Americans said they have a favorable opinion of Obama, while 35 percent had a negative opinion. In the same poll, 36 percent said they had a positive opinion of Trump and 52 percent had a negative opinion.
Yadda, yadda, yadda, we will know soon enough if the polls have any validity whatsoever.
Their track record is pretty abominable. Especially during a certain election. Never mind the NFL debacle.
He can’t run again due to term limits; he’s already served two consecutive terms, which is way better than everyone after Christie Whitman who resigned in 2001.
NJ isn’t solid Democratic, as far as party names go. Otherwise, not even the RINOs would get in.
Yes, I know Christie can’t run again, but he has so damaged the perception of republicans in this state, that I don’t think Guadagno (sp?) has a chance.
Who wants to let these people win?? Please fence-sitters, let’s get together and defeat these people.
~*~
Shades of the Old South: It is always important to vote, but it is more important than ever this year
By Kenneth R. Ken Plum State Delegate (D-36)
Just when you think things are changing you can be shocked to realize just how much they stay the same. Politics in Virginia are a prime example.
For more than a century after the Civil War the consistent factor in politics was race baiting. The then-called Democrats in the South, who later became known as Dixiecrats and today are the conservative wing of the Republican Party, were successful
with a variety of laws that disenfranchised African Americans.
Even with the few African Americans who could get through the labyrinth of laws that included blank sheet registration forms, literacy tests and poll taxes the scare tactic employed by too many candidates was to suggest that their opponent was a lover of black people but using a derogatory term. That fear of black people has its roots back to the centuries where black people were enslaved and brutal enforcement and fear were used to keep them that way.
The Civil War did not resolve the feeling between blacks and whites, and slave codes were replaced with Jim Crow laws that whites could use to assert supremacy over black people.
For a candidate to take a position that could be interpreted as being favorable to African Americans would mean almost certain
defeat at the polls. Only Supreme Court decisions and federal laws like the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act created a more level political playing field between the races. Continued efforts to suppress the votes of minorities and to unnecessarily complicate the voting process are still employed by some trying to maintain a structured society of white supremacy.
More recently those who want to keep or expand their political power have swept immigrants whatever their status into the
realm of those who are to be feared and suppressed from participating in the democratic process.
Many strive to gain maximum political advantage through whatever means while at the same time wanting to keep the appearance of respect and patriotism. The recent television ad with scary images and references to fear and the MS 13 gang intends to scare voters into rejecting a compassionate medical doctor with an ad that fact checkers have found to be untruthful.
Another concern from the current campaign is the suggestion from a white female candidate for lieutenant governor that her black male opponent does not understand the issues well enough to discuss them intelligently. Disregarding the excellent academic credentials of her opponent, her comments had the tone of the past that one observer said seemed more appropriate for 1957 than 2017.
At the national level, there are daily statements and actions that hearken back to the racial climate of the Old South. This year In Virginia, we have a unique opportunity on Nov. 7 to make a statement with our votes that we reject the discrimination of the past. It is alwaysimportant to vote, but it is more important than ever this year. Despite efforts to romanticize
the Old South and the Confederacy, we need to learn the truth and understand why
we need to move on.
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