US President Barack Obama takes part in early voting at a polling station in Chicago, Illinois yesterday.
President Barack Obama cast his ballot yesterday during a visit in his hometown of Chicago two weeks ahead of November 4 midterm elections.
“I love voting. Everybody in Illinois, early vote. It’s a wonderful opportunity,” Obama said after submitting his vote at the Martin Luther King Jr Park & Family Entertainment Center.
“The way we win any election is making sure we turn out.”
Obama brought donuts and other pastries to Illinois Governor Pat Quinn’s office and worked his way around the room.
“Michelle sent these. We got broccoli, carrots,” Obama joked about the pastries, in reference to his wife’s health and nutrition campaign.
During a rally supporting Quinn’s re-election campaign on Sunday, Obama had urged Democrats to turn out in large numbers to offset the Republicans’ usually higher turnout.
“You’ve got to grab your friends. You’ve got to grab your coworkers. Don’t just get the folks who you know are going to vote,” he said.
During the 2012 presidential election campaign, Obama had also voted early, which is unusual for a serving president.
Early voting, which is subject to different laws in the 50 US states, aims to avoid long waits at polling stations on voting day.
It also encourages voters to participate in the balloting without having to take time off work.
President Obama made a rare appearance on the campaign trail on Sunday with a rally to support the Democratic candidate for governor in Maryland, though the event was marred somewhat by early departures of crowd members and a yelling heckler.
With approval levels hovering around record lows, Obama has spent most of his campaign-related efforts this year raising money for struggling Democrats, who risk losing control of the US Senate in the Nov. 4 midterm election.
Many candidates from his party have been wary of appearing with him during their election races because of his sagging popularity.
Not so Lieutenant Governor Anthony Brown of Maryland, who is running for governor, and Governor Pat Quinn of Illinois, who is running for re-election.
“You’ve got to vote,” Obama repeated over and over at a rally for Brown in Upper Marlboro, Maryland, near Washington.
‘Being a justice too monastic for me’
Barack Obama loves the law, and teaching. But he has no interest in becoming a Supreme Court justice after he leaves the White House - “a little bit too monastic for me,” he says.
“I love the law, intellectually,” he told the New Yorker magazine. “I love nutting out these problems, wrestling with these arguments. I love teaching. I miss the classroom and engaging with students.
“But I think being a justice is a little bit too monastic for me. Particularly after having spent six years and what will be eight years in this bubble, I think I need to get outside a little bit more.”
Leon Panetta, Obama’s former CIA and defence chief, recently evoked the president’s professorial qualities - but in less flattering terms - in his new memoir “Worthy Fights.”
Obama too often “relies on the logic of a law professor rather than the passion of a leader,” said Panetta. As a result, he argued, the president “avoids the battle, complains and misses opportunities.”
Panetta, who retired to his walnut farm in California in 2013 after a long career in politics, said it was good to be thoughtful, but not enough.
