Obama ‘torments’ Trump by highlighting his ‘impotence’ in office: columnist

Writing for The Guardian this Thursday, Richard Wolffe says that for the last four years, President Trump hasn't had an "appropriate adversary." But on Wednesday, "the animating force behind Trump’s animus reappeared on screen to declare the beginning of the end of the Trump era – or democracy as we know it."

Wolffe is referring to former President Barack Obama's speech at the virtual Democratic Convention.

Obama has been almost a singular focus of Trump "destructive powers," Wolffe writes, adding that in his speech, Obama "returned to torment Trump in ways that only a member of the Oval Office club can."

"The former president accused of being a foreigner was detailing how deeply un-American his accuser really is," Wolffe writes.

Wolffe acknowledges that as time passes, the star power of figures like the Clintons or the Obamas will fade, which is why Joe Biden's addition of Kamala Harris to his ticket was so important.

"Like Biden, Harris is essentially a centrist Democrat with an extraordinary opportunity to enact sweeping changes to rebuild after the twin catastrophes of Covid-19 and Trump. Like Obama, they may have a short window to pass legislation to set the nation – and the world – on a new course on the pandemic, the economy, immigration and the climate crisis," Wolffe writes. "But unlike Obama, Harris has arrived at a time when she can invoke Martin Luther King Jr’s beloved community and spell out what it will take to create it."

Read the full op-ed over at The Guardian.