CNN
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Exactly 16 years ago, an impossibly young-looking Barack Obama stormed through Ohio on a bus tour, electrifying huge crowds and emphatically closing the deal on his stunning 2008 election victory.

On another October evening on Thursday, the 63-year-old ex-president was back on stage with a huge American flag in the background and tried to do for Kamala Harris what she had previously found difficult to do herself: prevent the 2024 election.

The snowy Obama had traded Ohio, which had not been a hotly contested presidential state since he left the White House, for this year’s potentially crucial state of Pennsylvania. The fact that the prophet of hope and change from 2008 is still his party’s most effective political speaker four presidential elections later is an indictment for the Democrats. But the urgency of his message in Pittsburgh highlighted a more immediate story: His nemesis Donald Trump could be facing a return to the Oval Office.

“We don’t need another four years of arrogance, awkwardness, bluster and division. “America is ready to turn the page,” Obama said. “We are ready for a better story that helps us work together instead of turning against each other. Pennsylvania, we are ready for President Kamala Harris.”

Sometimes it takes a former president who can provide the clear argument that a candidate locked in a bitter race cannot make himself. This has happened before – in 2012, when Bill Clinton seized on Obama’s vague re-election bid and gave voters fed up with economic hardship a rationale for sending him back to the White House.

Obama on Thursday painted a stark picture of Trump as a malevolent, ridiculous and incompetent threat while trying to make a rhetorical case for voters who feel economically insecure to vote for Harris, who is nonetheless part of an incumbent administration.

“I’m the hopeful, changeable type, so I understand that people are frustrated and feel like we can do better,” Obama said. “What I can’t understand is why anyone would think that Donald Trump is going to shake things up in a way that’s good for you, Pennsylvania. I don’t understand that.”

Obama’s impassioned appeal for Harris in a state that could derail their presidential election hopes comes as Democrats worry that their initial momentum has waned after taking over President Joe Biden’s campaign and What could be the most critical general election in decades is at best looming in less than a month.

“He realizes how close this race is,” a source familiar with Obama’s comments told CNN’s Kayla Tausche. The former president heavily mocked Trump, asking whether his successor had ever changed a tire or a diaper and condemning his single term in office and his “mean and ugly” border policies.

Obama’s appearance, a turning point since Harris came knocking for him in frigid Iowa before the 2008 election, also had a far deeper, personal meaning. The 44th and 45th presidents have been waging a political feud for more than a decade, since Trump based the foundation of his populist movement on the false claim that Obama was not born in the United States. Birtherism was the earliest indication of the effectiveness of Trump’s political cocktail of racial smears and falsehoods, which has reached new heights in the 2024 election.

More broadly, the contrast between Obama and Trump helps explain the politics of the last 15 years in the United States.

The 44th president ushered in a new, multiethnic, young and socially diverse Democratic coalition while building a brand as a leader who, at least rhetorically, is trying to bridge some of the country’s deepest divides. Trump developed a backlash politics after the country’s first black presidency, using racist appeals and strongman zeal to demonize opponents to create a political movement as enduring as Obama’s. In many ways, the upcoming election represents a new battle between these two creeds — and Obama’s legacy, including his groundbreaking Affordable Care Act, may depend on Harris winning.

The former president accused Trump on Thursday of violating fundamental American values. “Those didn’t used to be Republican and Democratic values. We used to argue about tax policy and foreign policy, but we didn’t argue about whether or not to tell the truth,” he said.

‘When did this become OK?’: Obama slams Trump’s hurricane lies

He criticized Trump for his false claim that the Biden administration had denied hurricane aid to Republicans. “There will be leaders who are trying to help, and then there will be someone who is just lying to score political points, and that has consequences,” Obama said. “When did this become okay?”

But the Trump campaign isn’t letting go of claims that have even been refuted by many Republican state and local officials. “There are a lot of people who could have been helped, a lot of lives that could have been saved that weren’t, and there are a lot of details to figure out,” Sen. JD Vance, the GOP vice-presidential nominee, said Thursday.

Obama’s comments were aimed primarily at traditional Republicans who may loathe Trump’s behavior and the male voters who make up his power base.

Previously, Obama had sought to empower another traditionally Democratic constituency — black men, CNN’s Edward-Isaac Dovere reported. At a campaign office in Harris, Obama wondered whether the reluctance of some “brothers” to support the Democratic candidate was due to sexism. “Are you thinking about sitting out or supporting someone who has denigrated you in the past because you believe that is a sign of strength because that is what it means to be a man? “Put women down?” Obama said. “This is not acceptable.”

But the former president can only do so much. He’s not on the ballot and despite his enduring appeal to Democrats, he’s yesterday’s man. And in the past, his fundamental appeal hasn’t always been transferable to other Democrats. He worked hard to elect Hillary Clinton, who was defeated in 2016. A big question now is whether Harris, who based her campaign on generational change and her biography, can build on Obama’s criticism of Trump to formulate her own, tougher closing argument.

The former president’s appearance came after a week in which the Harris campaign stepped up its efforts to find and poach all available voters. The vice president was far more willing to engage in unscripted situations, from a “60 Minutes” interview to an appearance on the female-popular ABC show “The View” to a trip to see Howard Stern’s radio show, popular with many American men. On Thursday, at a town hall hosted by Univision in Nevada, which she followed with a rally in Arizona, Harris sought to undo some of Trump’s success with another traditionally Democratic voting bloc, Hispanic voters.

Democrats are trying to improve their prospects in swing states by trimming Trump’s margins in rural areas where he runs strongest. The effort will get a boost next week when another former president, Bill Clinton, goes on the trail on behalf of Harris, recreating the intimate, small-scale events that preceded his 1992 presidential campaign. The 42nd president will have a chance to express his Southern affinity for connecting with rural voters using relatable economic arguments.

But Democrats’ concerns about Harris’ campaign are palpable. There is no clear front-runner in CNN’s average of recent national polls, swing-state polls show dead heats, and several polls this week suggest the Democratic nominee’s key Blue Wall is faltering in Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania could.

Harris also appears to have not yet agreed on a way to distance herself from the Biden administration’s unpopularity among many voters — particularly those frustrated by high food prices. For example, on “The View,” Harris said, “I can’t think of anything she’s done differently than the president in the last four years.”

But for all the anxiety among Democrats – rooted in fear of what Trump would do in “retaliation” in his promised second term – the race is still unpredictable in mid-October. One reason is that a spate of massive, shocking events — including Biden’s withdrawal and two assassination attempts that Trump survived — appeared to give neither Democrats nor Republicans an advantage in a deeply divided nation. So it’s questionable whether former presidents or the aftermath of hurricanes will change anything at this late date.

Adding to the uncertainty are questions about the exact composition of the likely electorate. Will Trump be able to attract many voters who normally don’t get involved? Or will the vice president benefit from drawing widespread attention from female voters enraged by Trump’s role in eliminating a federal right to abortion? Or could Harris’ historic potential to become the first black female president boost turnout among black women in swing states like Georgia?

And will Trump’s seemingly lax attitude toward a traditional ground game to maximize voter turnout backfire?

Obama stressed Thursday that there is only one cure for such intangibles.

“Whether this election makes you feel excited or anxious or hopeful or frustrated or anything in between, don’t just sit back and hope for the best,” he told the crowd in Pittsburgh. “Get off your couch and vote. Put down your phone and vote, grab your friends and family and vote. Elect Kamala Harris as the next President of the United States.”

Obama rejects claims about Trump’s economy