Thousands of people lined up for hours to hear President Barack Obama at the University of North Florida on Thursday afternoon, the sweltering heat failing to wilt their enthusiasm.
The arena filled up soon, and erupted into a carnival, as they waited for Mr. Obama, who arrived an hour late. It was deafening cheers when the President took the stage, and the crowd stood through his entire speech, in which he made a strong case for Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. "I'm not on this ballot. But everything we've done these last eight years is on the ballot," he said. “Decency is on the ballot. Justice is on the ballot. Democracy is on the ballot. And Hillary Clinton will advance these things,” he said, calling on the audience that had a large presence of African Americans among them, to vote and get others to vote. “You’ve got to talk to cousin Pookie. ..You’ve got to talk to Uncle Jimmy,” he said.
Both sides are battling it hard in Florida, where the contest is the closest and the prize is 29 electoral college votes. Mr. Obama did two events on Thursday and may come back again on Sunday. Republican nominee Donald Trump campaigned in the State for the second consecutive day, speaking two hours earlier, in Jacksonville. “Our movement represents all Americans from all backgrounds and all walks of life,” said Mr. Trump.
The President’s tore into Mr. Trump in his speech. “Donald Trump is uniquely unqualified to be President. Donald Trump is temperamentally unfit to be commander-in-chief,” he said.
Mr. Obama said this election is unlike all others, and the normalisation of Mr. Trump’s behavior, which is turning out to be dangerous. “We’ve become numb to it… It’s not acceptable…It’s not normal,” the President said, recalling his own contests against Republican opponents in 2008 and 2012.
“When I ran .. against John McCain, I disagreed with him on a whole bunch of stuff, but I didn’t fear for the Republic. I just thought I would be a better President. When I ran against Mitt Romney in 2012, I disagreed with him on all kinds of things. But, although I thought I was going to be a better President, I did not think that our democracy would be injured by him taking office. This is different. This is somebody who would do damage to our democracy, who is uniquely unqualified and shows no interest in becoming more qualified,” Mr. Obama said.
The President, said while American voters must vote against Mr. Trump they must also vote for something, presenting Ms. Clinton as the “somebody who is tested, maybe the most qualified person to ever run for this office.”
Mr. Obama also reminded the crowd to vote for a Democratic Congress. “It’s not enough to elect Hillary and stick her with a Republican Congress that behaves the way they’ve been behaving,” he said, referring to the constant obstructionism of the Republican majority Congress. The Senate has refused to hold a hearing for Mr. Obama’s nominee for the Supreme Court, among other non-cooperative behaviour.
