Pictured are former U.S. president Barack Obama, the nations's first Black president who served two terms as president (2009-2016) with Joe Biden as his vice president, former vice president and likely Democratic presumptive nominee Joe Biden, and Democratic U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (wearing eye glasses), Obama announcing his endorsement of his former vice president on Tuesday, a day after Sanders, who quit the race for president last week, endorsed him
Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, Ohio's most read Black digital newspaper and Black blog, both also top in black digital news in the Midwest.Tel: (216) 659-0473 and Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com
CLEVELANDURBANNEWS.COM – Former U.S. president Barack Obama, the nation's first Black president, officially endorsed former vice president Joe Biden on Tuesday, a day after U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, a two-time candidate for president and Vermont senator who quit the race for the Democratic nomination for president last week, endorsed him, Biden the clear presumptive nominee to take on incumbent president Donald Trump for the November general election.
"Choosing Joe to be my vice president was one of the best decisions I ever made, and he became a close friend," Obama said about his former vice president via an online video message.
The two-term former president and Trump's predecessor, Obama praised Sanders for his support of Biden's candidacy and said he believes that Biden has "all the qualities we need in a president right now."
On the campaign trail Biden often told supporters that he is an Obama-Biden Democrat and he promoted the policies of the former president on issues pertaining to immigration reform, reproductive rights, taxes, foreign relations and peace in the Middle-east, medicare, medicaid and Obama's controversial signature healthcare legislation that Trump and his fellow Republicans literally despise.
After Sanders quit the race, Democrats immediately began courting Obama and urging the former junior U.S. senator from Illinois who made history in 2008 when he outdid Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primary and went on to beat then the Republican nominee U.S. Sen John McCain, who has since died, to win the presidency to quickly endorse his former vice president.
Obama won reelection in 2012 to another four-year term over then Republican nominee Mitt Romney, now a U.S. senator representing Massachusetts, Clinton losing another bid for president in 2016 to now President Trump after beating Sanders that year in the primary election.
The Black vote is no doubt crucial for the 2020 election and Obama's endorsement of Biden speaks volumes.
The Black vote fell seven percentage points from 2012 to 2016, Obama' s last year in office, with Blacks making up 12 percent of the electorate that year.
Some 4 million Obama voters stayed home in 2016 when Clinton lost to Trump, and he too is courting the Black vote in 2020, or at least he is posturing on the matter.
During his bid this time around for the Democratic nomination Sanders, as was Biden, was effective in narrowing the more than 28 Democratic candidates down to the two of them. .
Sanders nearly won Iowa, coming in second place, and he went on to win New Hampshire and Nevada, Biden, powered by the Black vote and an endorsement from Black U.S. Rep James Clyburn, later winning South Carolina, and Super Tuesday, and never looking back.
By the time he called it quits on Wednesday he said his campaign lagged behind in more than 300 pledged delegates, Biden with 1, 217 pledged delegates and Sanders with 914, a candidate needing 1,991 delegates to clinch the Democratic nomination.
Biden, 77, remains the pragmatic choice of Black voters in general, and southern and elderly Black voters simply adore him.
A popular Republican among his strong base of supporters, President Trump still lags behind him in nearly every poll, including Quinnipiac, CNN, and Emerson polls that have Biden anywhere from four to seven percentage points ahead if the election were held today, the Emerson poll showing a Biden Trump election night showdown in November at 53-47%.
Only the conservative-leaning Fox News poll shows the duo tied at 42-42%, the president often offended and on the attack if political polls suggest he might be out of a job next year.
Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, Ohio's most read Black digital newspaper and Black blog.Tel: (216) 659-0473 and Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. We interviewed former president Barack Obama one-on-one when he was campaigning for president. As to the Obama interview, CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE AT CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM, OHIO'S LEADER IN BLACK DIGITAL NEWS.
