DEMS/ELECTION/OBAMA/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “John Toles-Bey wants to be clear: He loves Barack Obama. Mr. Toles-Bey, a 62-year-old small-business owner, voted for the former president twice, after never participating in elections in his life. He now follows politics incessantly, an obsession he credits to Mr. Obama’s influence. He started a T-shirt company called You Can’t Trump God after Mr. Obama left office, because President Trump’s election sent him into a downward emotional spiral that only religion could counteract. But even as Mr. Toles-Bey waited outside one of Mr. Obama’s recent rallies, he wondered aloud if his political hero’s signature idealism had a place in today’s flame-throwing political climate…Mr. Obama remains the top Democratic surrogate in the country, and he will be lending his star power to some of the most closely watched Democratic candidates during the campaign’s final week, including Andrew Gillum in Florida, Stacey Abrams in Georgia and Joe Donnelly in Indiana. But the election of Mr. Trump has tested the former president’s theory of measured change, his advisers acknowledge. It has also jaded some of the legions of voters Mr. Obama brought into the Democratic fold, including young people and minorities.”
–Astead W. Herndon, “Fight Fire With Fire, or Be Civil With Trump? The Obama Coalition Is Unsure,” The New York Times online, October 31, 2018