Trump makes Obama great for midterm voters

The huge political story that will rock the nation after Labor Day is the battle between the highly popular former President Barack Obama and the highly unpopular President Donald Trump for the future of America in the midterm elections.

The Trump-Obama drama will be a battle for the ages, a battle for control of Congress, a battle for the heart of the American idea, a battle of ideas between two political philosophies and two vastly different visions of America.

{mosads}The notion of an American president dividing the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) alliance and meeting with a Russian strongman with no Americans present would be anathema to Obama and all previous post-war presidents, but is vintage Trump.

When Obama begins actively campaigning for Democrats, cable news will bring live coverage of every Obama speech for Democrats alongside live coverage of every Trump speech for Republicans.

My bet is that the final result of the Trump-Obama battle will resemble the second fight between Muhammad Ali and Sonny Liston in 1965. Obama will star in the role of Ali and Trump in the role of Liston. Obama will politically knock out Trump in the first round.

Television loves great drama. The high stakes battle between Obama and Trump will be the drama of the decade.  In November, Democrats will win control of the House of Representatives and possibly the Senate. Here is why.

A new poll from the Pew Charitable Trust found that 44 percent of Americans believe that Obama was either the best or second-best president in their lifetime. Only 19 percent of Americans believe that Trump was either the best or second-best president in their lifetime. 

Approximately half of the Trump base does not even rank him as the best or second-best president in their lifetime.

In the midterms, Obama is the heavyweight champion of presidential popularity, while Trump is cruising for a knockout bruising. Trump is making Obama great for midterm voters. The contrast between the two is stunning, breathtaking and powerful for voters.

Obama was the last American president who was the leader of the free world. Americans like that. Trump is the only American president who has spent his time attacking other democratic leaders in the free world, undermining the security alliance that defends the free world and praising dictators who despise the free world, including Russian strongman Vladimir Putin. Americans do not like that. 

I recently wrote that Ronald Reagan would denounce Trump’s attacks against democratic leaders and praise of foreign dictators. Reagan would be outraged by Trump’s behavior at the NATO summit this week. 

I also wrote that a growing list of conservatives and Republicans, including George Will and Joe Scarborough, are leaving the GOP and increasingly supporting Democrats in the midterms. They are appalled by what Trump is doing to the party.

Obama was a good president. The big question from historians will be how good. Trump is a disaster as president. The big question from historians will be whether Trump is the worst president in history. 

Trump hates Obama. Trump hates ObamaCare. Americans like Obama. Americans like ObamaCare.

When Obama begins campaigning, as Trump wages political war to strip insurance away from Americans with pre-existing conditions and as insurance premiums are rising to punishing levels under Trump, Obama will annihilate Trump and Republicans over the health-care issue. The midterm elections of 2018 will look like the 2010 and 2014 GOP victories in reverse.

Obama, who ran a scandal-free presidency, will have a field day mocking the swampland scandals that pollute the Trump presidency on a regular basis on the front pages of newspapers and television screens across the land.

Obama gave a landmark speech about the defense of freedom at the gates of the former Berlin Wall. Trump regularly insults our democratic ally in Germany, is the most intensely disliked president in history among democratic peoples around the world and yearns to build an unpopular wall on the U.S.-Mexico border.

Obama believes in an economy in which the rising tide lifts all boats. Trump believes in an economy in which the biggest tax cuts go to the most wealthy Americans and most profitable corporations, while he wages trade wars that hurt farmers and workers.

When Obama campaigns across the nation for Democratic candidates, their spirits will soar. Their voter turnout will rise. Their determination to win will surge. There will be much discussion about the prospects of the highly popular former first lady, Michelle Obama as a potential Democratic candidate for president.

Trump has made Obama great for midterm voters. They remember how a president should conduct himself. They will vote their hopes, not their fears. They will vote their interests, not their hatreds.

The heavyweight bout of Obama versus Trump will end in a knockout for Democrats.

Brent Budowsky was an aide to former Sen. Lloyd Bentsen (D-Texas) and former Rep. Bill Alexander (D-Ark.), who was chief deputy majority whip of the U.S. House of Representatives. He holds an LLM in international financial law from the London School of Economics.