Milwaukee, Wis. — Former president Barack Obama demonstrated why the Democratic Party still needs his star power, as he delivered a speech at a campaign event Saturday afternoon that was characterized by a decorous vibrancy that so rarely is exhibited by Democratic politicians. Speaking with Tony Evers and Mandela Barnes on the stage, the two candidates flickered weakly next to Obama’s self-possessive incandescence.
Obama held court in the field house at North Division High School in Milwaukee, a predominantly African-American school of 375, with all students eligible for free lunch. Obama spoke on behalf of Wisconsin’s largest, and closest races, backing Tony Evers against Tim Michels in the gubernatorial race and Mandela Barnes’s attempt to unseat incumbent Ron Johnson in the Senate.
While all the candidates who took the stage mentioned the Democrats’ current top issue, abortion, the former president was the only one to acknowledge that there are “people of conscience who feel differently from me on the issue.” But, he said, “We all should agree that women should be able to control what happens with their bodies.” It was classic Obama, speaking in gracious language while insinuating those who disagreed with him were outside the bounds of reasonable opinion.
Obama spoke for 55 minutes before an audience of about 1,500 people in a space that wasn’t filled to capacity.
The former president is on a multistate circuit, looking to prop up Democrats who have seen slumping poll numbers as their GOP opponents have steadily risen. To track Obama’s travel is to know which races are closest and of the greatest concern to Democrats. Beginning in Georgia, where Obama acknowledged Herschel Walker’s ability on the gridiron while impugning his competence elsewhere — including as a pilot.
The former president’s travel log will include Michigan, Nevada, and Pennsylvania, while President Biden traveled to Syracuse, N.Y., to buttress the congressional race there. With the midterms elections only ten days away, Republicans and Democrats with even a modicum of name recognition (such as Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh) are flying hither and thither in an effort to secure the extraordinarily close Senate margin in their party’s favor.