Jump to content

Shouldn't he be spending a little time being a president?


JEFF

Recommended Posts

More time on the stump for another candidate than any other president. Ever.

 

Why President Obama's Campaign Blitz for Hillary Clinton Is Historic

  • By JORDYN PHELPS
  •  
Nov 2, 2016, 2:18 PM ET
  •  
  •  
  •  
PHOTO: President Barack Obama is joined by Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton after his address to the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, July 27, 2016.Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images
WATCH President Obama: 'Don't Be Bamboozled' by Donald Trump

President Obama is engaged in the last major mission of his presidency: Electing Hillary Clinton.

Obama is spending every day this week crisscrossing the map to stump for Clinton in key battleground states, and the Clinton campaign is capitalizing on the president’s strong approval numbers, which are the highest they’ve been since the early days of his presidency. A recent ABC News/Washington Post poll put the president’s approval rating at 58 percent.

“There's a reason that Secretary Clinton's team has asked President Obama to maintain such an aggressive travel schedule,” White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said Tuesday as the president set out on his final campaign blitz in the week before Election Day. “They believe that he is a particularly effective messenger in making the case for Secretary Clinton to the American people.”

The president is spending two days this week in the battleground of North Carolina and also making stops in the swing states of Florida and Ohio.

So, just how unusual is it for an outgoing president to be a central surrogate for the nominee of their party? It’s unparalleled in modern presidential history.

One factor is that most outgoing two-term presidents lack the political capital to lend to their party’s nominee.

In 2008, for instance, President George W. Bush, with his sagging approval numbers, was more of a liability than an asset to candidate John McCain. During the campaign, Bush’s role was reserved almost exclusively to fundraising in private for McCain.

And back in 2000, even though President Clinton had a solid approval rating above the 50 percent mark, his personal scandals kept him sidelined from a role of prominence in Vice President Al Gore’s campaign. That decision by the Gore campaign is now remembered as a strategic blunder, says George Mason University political science professor Jeremy Mayer.

“Gore stiff-armed Clinton, and many analysts say that’s one of the factors that led to Gore’s defeat, and that had Gore gotten that great campaigner out there it could have helped him,” Mayer said.

While Clinton did do some campaigning for Gore in the final days of the election, he was mostly kept out of the key battleground states.

Even looking back as far as 1988, when then-Vice President George H.W. Bush was running to succeed the popular Ronald Reagan, the Bush campaign did not utilize Reagan as the Clinton campaign has used President Obama in part due to concerns that the towering Reagan might overshadow the candidate.

"Bush was seen as not as strong or as masculine as Reagan, he needed to establish himself," Mayer said. "There was a machismo, trying to achieve some machismo."

"Hillary doesn’t have that problem. Both the president and Michelle are more popular than her, but that doesn’t bother her," Mayer continued. For the president's part, his passionate appeal to voters to elect Clinton is about more than his confidence in his former secretary of state. It’s also about securing his legacy.

“Everything’s we’ve done is dependent on me being able to pass the baton to someone who believes in the same things I believe in,” President Obama said in a radio interview taped with Tom Joyner on Tuesday. “So if you really care about my presidency, and what we’ve accomplished, then you are going to go and vote.”

Another factor that makes this election personal for the president, Mayer posits, is that Obama is aware that the Democratic Party has lost control of both chambers of Congress on his watch.

"Obama knows he’s been a disaster for the party outside his presidency," Mayer said. "It's not Obama's fault but the party below Obama is struggling."

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/president-obamas-campaign-blitz-hillary-clinton-historic/story?id=43249593

Link to comment
Share on other sites

CNN is campaigning HARD for her.....not even trying anymore to mask themselves as a real news source.  It's just shameful.  But funny.  I like to watch and think of all the fucking idiots that live their entire live going by "the word" of CNN.

Stupidfuckingdemocratsbullfuckingshit!  :guzzle:  My "ode" to Momo.  I just lack the skills.

:lol:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
  • Trying to pay the bills, lol



×
×
  • Create New...