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US shaping up for battle between Democrats and Republicans

Obama's speech
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The midterm election this November in the United States is shaping up to be a battle not just between Democrats and Republicans, but also between the current president and his immediate predecessor.

Former President Barack Obama has made a bold play on the national stage since the beginning of September, delivering three key speeches that have made him a key figure in Democratic hopes to regain some power in Congress.

And while his successor President Donald Trump is not on the ballot, his agenda will be, with these two highly popular figures in their respective parties likely to play crucial roles in November’s outcome.

While President Trump has used his twitter handle to consistently attack his predecessor, Obama has largely remained silent – but that all changed when he spoke at the funeral of late Republican senator and former presidential rival John McCain on September 1st.

Barack Obama says: “So much of our politics, our public life, and our public discourse can seem small and mean and petty. Trafficking in bombast and insult and phony controversies and manufactured outrage. It’s the politics that pretends to be brave and tough but in fact is born of fear.”

That was just the beginning; he’d give two further speeches the very next week in which he attacked President Trump and the Republican Party for fuelling division and resentment in the country.

“I was also intent on following a wise American tradition, of ex-Presidents gracefully exiting the political stage, and making room for new voices, and new ideas. I’m here today because this is one of those pivotal moments when every one of us, as citizens of the United States needs to determine just who it is that we are.”

Both parties have urged their supporters to get to the polls on November 6th when Democrats need to pick up at least 23 seats in the House of Representatives and 2 in the Senate to regain control of at least one lever of Government.

This was President Trump’s response to Obama’s very public return to politics.

“He said what did you think of President Obama’s speech? And I said, I’m sorry I watched it, but I fell asleep. I found it very good, very good for sleeping. I think he was trying to take some credit. He was trying to take credit for this incredible thing that’s happening to our country. If the Democrats got in and I have to say this to President Obama and it wasn’t him, but would have been the same thing.”

“If the Democrats got in with their agenda in November of almost two years ago, instead of having four point two up. I believe honestly you’d have four point two down and you’d be negative. You’d be in negative numbers. You’d be a negative number.”

Referring there to the country’s current economic growth after President Obama argued it was a recovery that started under his watch.

“By the time I left office, household income was near its all-time high, and the uninsured rate it hit an all-time low – and wages were rising and poverty rates were falling. I mention all this just so when you hear how great the economy’s doing right now, let’s just remember when this recovery started. I’m glad it’s continued.”

So, while these two political figures are not facing each other on the ballot in November, it’s an idea that supporters of both candidates wouldn’t mind channeling nonetheless.

Obama will have a personal stake in this, having been vexed by Trump for years from lies about his birth certificate and his right to the Presidency to attempts often successful by the Trump administration to undo a number of his signature achievements.

But President Trump likes a good political brawl and currently enjoys unrivalled popularity from within his Republican Party, making the prospects for November all the more mouth-watering if not pivotal for the future vision of the United States.

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