Obama to tell foe-to-friend story at Clinton event

It’s a powerful symbol of the presidency that Obama appears happy to confer upon his preferred successor.

“You know, I’d have a lot more time to spend with my grandkids and play golf if I didn’t have to campaign for Hillary”.

Just over a year ago, the president and Clinton were in Charlotte for the funeral for the Rev. Clementa Pinckney, one of nine black churchgoers who were slain in a racially motivated attack.

“That quickly was followed by her statement where she said, ‘Let’s be clear: The investigators at the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the career prosecutors at Justice are the ones that are going to make a recommendation, and I’m going to accept the recommendation, ‘” he said. She’s going to work very, very hard to do that.

The latest NBC News/WSJ poll shows Republican presumptive nominee Donald Trump with a strong lead over Clinton – 41 percent to 25 percent – on honesty and trustworthiness.

Yet Clinton and Obama were all smiles as they stepped off Air Force One after a quick flight from Washington, pausing side-by-side to wave for cameras. “I would much rather have him as a candidate than someone who has put the nation at risk”. He mocked Trump’s promise to “Make America Great Again”, saying, “America is really great”. “This is a choice between whether we are going to cling to some imaginary past or whether we’re going to reach for the future”.

Obama, too, got in a dig at Trump. “This is not entertainment”.

The state’s electorate has become more diverse since Obama’s first presidential campaign.

“Hindsight is 20/20”, Clinton told NBC’s Meet the Press program. “And her moral compass is about helping those who are in the shadows”. Donald Trump tweeted. “Who pays?”

Miranda dismissed that notion, pointing out that Clinton’s campaign reported having $42.5 million cash on hand.

Lotter said they discussed policies Pence has used in Indiana. “Why is President Obama allowed to use Air Force One on the campaign trail with Crooked Hillary?”

Starting with his first in-person call for Clinton’s election on Tuesday, Clinton aides hope the second-term President will serve as a validating voice that can vouch for Clinton’s character, fitness and qualifications.

Democrats are aiming to retake the state by energizing Obama’s coalition of minority and young voters.

In recent weeks, Obama has grown increasingly vocal in his denouncement of Trump.

Brown sought to contrast Clinton’s cooperation with the investigation, and the disclosure of 55,000 pages of emails, with Trump’s decision to withhold his income tax records.

Like most Democrats, Obama expected his party’s primary to conclude far sooner than it did. The state voted for Obama for president in 2008 and for Republican nominee Mitt Romney in 2012.

Obama and Clinton originally planned to make their first campaign appearance together in Wisconsin, a Democratic-leaning state where Clinton struggled in her primary fight with Bernie Sanders.

“It’s a sign of strength when you can go up (on broadcast television) early in a battleground state like North Carolina”, said Dave Miranda, communications director for the state Democratic Party.

President Obama will campaign alongside Clinton for the first time this year at an event in Charlotte, just hours before Trump holds a rally in Raleigh. Husband Bill Clinton, the former president, this week met with the FBI’s boss, Attorney General Loretta Lynch, on the tarmac in Phoenix in a session both say was innocent but regrettable.

Women could help Hillary win the state!

Obama also hasn’t shied away from ripping Trump at “official” events over the past year, including most recently during a foreign leaders’ summit in Canada. “I think he comes across as authentic”, Woodhouse said. Clinton shared photos of her grandchildren, Charlotte and newborn Aidan, with the president.