Barack Obama, campaigning for Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan, acknowledged that his fellow Democrat has criticised some aspects of the Obama presidency.
asserted
Democrat → campaign → presidency
“Yeah, Abdul didn’t agree with some things we wanted to do – that our administration was doing – when I was president,” he told a rally in Detroit.
asserted
he → agree → Detroit
“You know who else doesn’t agree with everything I do?
asserted
I → know → everything
The crowd erupted in laughter.
asserted
crowd → erupt → laughter
“I’d say about five times a day, she says, ‘You knucklehead.
asserted
she → say → knucklehead
Why you do that?’”
asserted
you → do → that
It was an elegant attempt to bridge the gap between the old Democratic party and the new.
asserted
It → bridge → party
The US midterm elections have brought anti-incumbent sentiment to the fore.
asserted
elections → bring → fore
Some candidates have actively shrugged off their party labels, eager to cast themselves as outsiders running against the Washington establishment.
asserted
candidates → shrug → establishment
Against that backdrop, who wants a 65-year-old former president who left office nearly a decade ago with his promise of hope and change still only partly realised?
asserted
promise → want → hope
It seems that Democrats do.
asserted
Democrats → seem → ?
“Yes, we can!” chanted the crowd this week inside an arena in suburban Atlanta, Georgia, reviving the cadence of an Obama 2008 campaign that now feels like an artefact from a vanished age.
asserted
that → chant → age
With days to go before midterm elections that will decide the balance of power in Congress for the remainder of Donald Trump’s second term, Democrats have turned to their most formidable orator for a series of blistering speeches in the campaign’s closing days.
asserted
Democrats → go → days
America’s first Black president has mercilessly mocked Trump’s autocratic pretensions and derided his foreign policy misadventures in the Middle East.
asserted
president → mock → East
“This election is our last, best chance of at least reining him in, reining in some of the foolishness of this administration,” he said in Georgia.
asserted
he → rein → Georgia
“It’s the circuit-breaker in the system, and we need to flip it.”
asserted
we → ’ → it
For party strategists, the decision to deploy Obama in the campaign’s closing stretch was a calculated gamble.
asserted
decision → deploy → stretch
Unlike Trump, who has spent weeks staging grievance-filled rallies in traditional Republican strongholds, Obama maintained a selective public profile until the final weeks, allowing a new generation of Democratic candidates to establish their own identities before delivering a late burst of star power.
asserted
generation → spend → power
David Litt, a former Obama White House speechwriter, said: “What you’re seeing is him coming in to support a new generation of Democratic leaders who have emerged organically, rather than trying to be involved from day one.
asserted
who → say → day
He still has both a credibility and an ability to drive turnout that, if you’re a candidate in a close race, you can absolutely benefit from – especially among young voters and Black voters.”
asserted
you → have → voters
The former president possesses a rare currency in modern US politics, according to Litt: the ability to command attention, and unnerve his successor.
uncertain
president → possess → successor
“Obama is good at getting attention, and attention is hard to get these days,” he continued.
asserted
he → get → attention
“The other thing is he continues to live in Trump’s head rent-free.
asserted
he → continue → head
Donald Trump is out there on the stump, and in theory, he should be talking about his accomplishments.
asserted
he → talk → accomplishments
Instead he’s relitigating his decisions involving ballroom renovations, because he can’t help but get triggered by a single sentence from a former president.”
asserted
he → relitigate → president
That sentence came at a rally in Cleveland, Ohio, when Obama observed that Trump’s gold-encrusted renovations have left the White House looking as if “Saddam Hussein opened a Cheesecake Factory”.
asserted
Hussein → come → Factory
The comment triggered a mini-culture war in rightwing media – not because Obama had invoked a murderous Iraqi dictator, but because he had dared to suggest that a popular restaurant chain was a symbol of vulgar excess.
asserted
chain → trigger → excess
Trump waved his arms to mimic a lettuce leaf, accused Obama of snobbery and said: “Every piece of lettuce he eats has to be perfect, and I’m not that choosy.”
asserted
I → wave → lettuce
He defended his gilded White House decor and claimed Obama had left the executive mansion “deteriorated”.
asserted
Obama → defend → mansion
Trump’s treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, a wealthy former hedge fund manager, even staged a photo-op outside a Cheesecake Factory in Washington, ordering a french-dip cheeseburger in an apparent attempt to rebut accusations of elitism and urging “the Martha’s Vineyard set” to sample the chain’s multi-page menu.
asserted
secretary → stag → menu
To Obama, the outcry merely proved his case.
asserted
outcry → prove → case
In Atlanta, he said: “They mobilised a whole-of-government response to a joke, not to inflation, but to a joke.
asserted
They → say → joke
They don’t have solutions to actual problems, so they’d rather have the media and you talking about the Cheesecake Factory.”
asserted
media → have → Factory
For Litt, the Republican outrage betrayed a glaring double standard.
asserted
outrage → betray → standard
“This is a party that spent years complaining, ‘Oh, you’re not allowed to say anything offensive any more,’” he said.
asserted
he → spend → anything
“It turns out all these people who would die on the hill of allowing someone to use offensive language suddenly think [the] Cheesecake Factory is a line you just can’t cross.”
asserted
you → turn → language
In rural east Tennessee, Corbin Trent, a media strategist and former communications director for Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, scoffed at Republican attempts to portray Obama’s remarks as elite condescension toward working people.
asserted
Trent → scoff → people
He said: “They thought they were going to do this liberal elite stuff.
asserted
they → say → stuff
I live in rural America.
asserted
I → live → America
You’ve got this guy, Donald Trump, who presents himself like a mafioso, running our country like a mob – how can he enrich himself?
asserted
he → get → himself
…and 35 more, not listed.
The Aporia
