On Tuesday, Hillary Clinton had a powerful surrogate in President Barack Obama. Meanwhile, her Republican rival Donald Trump stumped in Iowa. Josh Robin filed the following report.
The prospect of welcoming President Donald Trump to the Oval Office seems to distress its current occupant.
"I really, really, really want to elect Hillary Clinton," President Barack Obama said.
Eight weeks before his successor is chosen, Obama was in Pennslyvania. Polls there recently narrowed.
Obama paints a loss November 8 as a historic crisis.
"This is a fundamental choice about who we are as a people. This is a choice about the very meaning of America," Obama siad.
He says there's never been a man or woman as qualified as Clinton. He was speaking subjectively, of course.
In Iowa, you could say it was more hyperbole.
"Hillary Clinton is running a policy-free campaign," Trump said. "She offers no ideas, no solutions, and only hatred and derision."
Agree with them or not, objective analysis shows her plans are actually far more detailed.
Tuesday, Trump also said, unverifiably, "The policies of Hillary Clinton have produced death, destruction. Overseas, it's been disasterous no matter where you look. Everything she's touched has been a disaster."
The Trump playbook is to appeal to a sense the world is bleak and getting worse. It's appealing to many. But a census report Tuesday may work undermine that core argument. It shows a dipping poverty rate and rising median income last year, in the first significant boost in nearly a decade, with more people with health insurance.
Obama's approval rating is also in positive terroritory, making him a valuable surrogate.
In trying to keep Trump from the White House, Obama and Trump actually share a common tactic: knocking the press for being softer on the other guy.
"We cannot afford suddenly to treat this like a reality show. We cannot afford to act as if there's some equivalence here," Obama said.
Trump is blunter.
"The media is disgusting," he said.