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Obama touts Clinton, blast Trump at Columbus fete
By Marc Kovac
COLUMBUS
You hear it every four years, President Barack Obama told an audience of Democrats and like-minded voters.
But this year, the president said Thursday night, the oft-mentioned most important election mantra is truer than ever, given the race for the White House between Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton and Republican nominee Donald Trump.
“I cannot think of a more important election in our lifetimes, because the choice between candidates has never been this stark,” Obama said. “It’s a choice between somebody who is as qualified as has ever been to run for this office, somebody who’s over and over proven that they know how to lead and know how to work and understand the issues working families are facing.”
He added, “On the other hand, you’ve got somebody who each and every day, every time he talks, proves himself unfit and unqualified for this office.”
Obama was the featured speaker at an Ohio Democratic Party dinner here, with upward of 2,000 people in attendance.
Obama’s appearance came a couple of hours after Trump spoke at a downtown hotel less than a mile away to a group of about 400 college students, where he slammed the president for his policy decisions over the past eight years.
Seth Unger, a spokesman for Trump’s Ohio campaign, added in a statement, “Barack Obama is so desperate for a third term that he’s become Defender-in-Chief for Hillary Clinton on the campaign trail, even as more evidence of her disdain for regular Ohioans leaks out every day.”
Democrats at the dinner, however, said Trump was not fit to be president.
“[Trump] doesn’t have the character to be president of the United States,” U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Cleveland, told reporters. “He’s the least-qualified candidate to be president in my lifetime. ... Hillary Clinton’s going to win because she has answers for the problems in this state.”
U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan of Howland, D-13th, added about Trump: “You made your money on the backs of poor, working-class people, you filed for bankruptcy, you cut them loose. ... You will never win Ohio, and you will never be president of the United States.”
Obama focused much of his speech on Ohio’s U.S. Senate race, praising former Gov. and current U.S. Senate candidate Ted Strickland and urging voters to back his candidacy against Republican Sen. Rob Portman.
The president slammed the latter, calling out the incumbent’s late decision to stop supporting Trump’s candidacy.
Recent polls, however, show Portman is leading the Senate race by double digits.
Obama will speak in Cleveland today.