With his usual swaggy attitude, former President Barack Obama took to the stage on a campaign trail in the battleground of Michigan — even though he is not a presidential candidate himself. He has a way with words, and has style and charisma. He doubled down on that charm and the audience went wild.
Obama was introduced to the audience by a native of Detroit whom everyone loves, the best white American rapper of all time, Eminem. It was Eminem’s song called Lose Yourself that the former president rapped on stage with such a classy vibe. It was well timed. But after all is said and done, can Obama salvage Michigan for Vice-president Kamala Harris and Minnesota’s governor, Tim Walz?
The Democratic Party of Harris and President Joe Biden has made several mistakes, and one of them is how the administration has been complicit in what is going on in Gaza. Since the beginning of the genocidal war in Gaza, unleashed by the Israeli government in a response to the horrific acts of Hamas of 7 October 2023, the United States government has failed to fully support the United Nations resolutions for any reasonable ceasefire in Gaza. Instead, this administration has allowed for shipment of US weapons to Israel which has led to almost 42 000 deaths of civilians, mainly women and children. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, “As of October 23, 2024, CPJ’s preliminary investigations showed at least 128 journalists and media workers” including two Israelis, and three Lebanese have been killed.
These crimes and atrocities happening in the Middle East have a direct bearing on the US elections. The American people are tired of sponsoring or supporting wars in faraway countries using taxpayer’s money, when there are so many homeless people on the streets of US cities. Countless veterans live below the poverty line, and the government has no use for them. And many Americans are barely getting by. It is unthinkable that the US government continues to ship weapons of war and billions of dollars to Israel in the name of self-defence.
Furthermore, Michigan has a large population of Arab American Muslims. These are the same voters who voted in the Democratic Party primary against Biden, just last year when the Gaza war broke out. Evidently, with thousands of people dead and millions displaced under the watch of the Democratic Party, there is no way that Arab American Muslims will vote for Harris and Walz. Hence, the desperate effort to bring Obama to the rescue.
As president of the US, Obama had time to do everything for everyone, except the people of Palestine. Just before he left office, Obama normalised relations with Cuba, and even went on to facilitate a process of opening an American embassy in Havana. A recommendable achievement.
Also, it was Obama who picked up the phone and called the president of Iran on Sep 28, 2013. This was the first time a sitting US president held direct talks with a leader of Iran since the 1979 Islamic revolution. It led to the Iranian nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. This deal was reached in Vienna on 14 July 2015, between Iran and the P5+1 (China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, United States plus Germany) together with the European Union. This was a remarkable achievement by the Obama administration.
But Obama is not qualified to be the “rescuer-in-chief” of the Harris/Walz ticket because he had eight years of dealing with the Palestinian question and did nothing.
It therefore follows that it would be naïve on the part of the Democratic Party and Harris to expect the Arab American population to give them their vote on 5 November. And no number of Eminem songs will sway the masses in Michigan.
If anything, they are better off voting for Jill Stein of the Green Party, who has an Arab American as a running mate in this 2024 presidential election. But also, she has been an outspoken advocate for the Palestinian cause long before and after the most recent war broke out in Gaza. Obama cannot salvage the swing state of Michigan for Harris and Walz, so let him go home and enjoy his retirement.
Aaron Ng’ambi is a geopolitical analyst and newspaper columnist, leadership instructor, and a social entrepreneur.