After keeping low profile on campaign trail, Obama makes debut for Biden

Washington|Reuters 

The Daily Tribune - www.newsofbahrain.com

Former U.S. President Barack Obama will make his first appearance on the campaign trail on Wednesday for Democratic nominee Joe Biden, who is locked in a tight race with President Donald Trump in crucial states 13 days before the Nov. 3 election.

Obama, who served eight years in office with Biden as his vice president, will urge supporters to vote early for Biden and other Democratic candidates in the general election at an outdoor drive-in rally in Pennsylvania’s biggest city, Philadelphia, an aide to the former president said.

Trump will head to North Carolina, another crucial battleground state where polls show a tight race, to hold a rally with supporters on Wednesday evening.

The rare public appearance by Obama, a frequent target for Trump’s attacks and still one of the Democratic Party’s biggest stars nearly four years after leaving the White House, comes at a critical time.

Biden and Trump meet in their second and final debate on Thursday night, giving the Republican an opportunity to change the trajectory of a race that Biden is leading in national polls.

Biden’s campaign manager, Jen O’Malley Dillon, has warned staff and supporters she sees a far closer race in the 17 states the campaign considers battlegrounds than is suggested by the national polls showing a consistent lead for Biden.

“As President Obama has said, this is an all-hands-on-deck moment, and he looks forward to hitting the trail in person, socially distanced, since we’re just two weeks out from the most important election of our lifetimes,” the Obama aide said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Biden regards his birthplace of Pennsylvania, a state Democrats narrowly lost to Trump in 2016, as a bellwether he must win. The former vice president has visited the state more than any other during the general election campaign.

Trump has gained ground on Biden in Pennsylvania, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Monday, which showed the challenger leading by 49% to 45%, slightly narrower than a week earlier.

“If we win Pennsylvania, we win the whole thing,” Trump said on Tuesday night at a rally in Erie, in Pennsylvania’s northwestern corner, where he warned supporters Biden’s policies would decimate the state’s energy and manufacturing jobs.

Trump’s campaign coffers plunged as he fell behind Biden in the money race, dipping to about $63 million in the bank at the end of September after spending about $139 million during the month, according to a disclosure filed with the Federal Election Commission on Tuesday night.