The Obama — El-Sayed Ticket

President Obama’s plan to join Senate candidate Dr. Abdul El-Sayed on the hustings on October 24 is a significant moment in the leftist lurch of the Democratic Party. Mr. Obama’s record in Michigan is strong — he captured the state by 16 points and 10 points in his two races for president. Dr. El-Sayed, after a narrow primary victory, is neck and neck with Republican Mike Rogers. Control for the Senate could run through the Wolverine State.Dr. El-Sayed is betting that Democratic voters are so eager for the taste of a congressional majority that they are willing to swallow no small side of radicalism. He calls for abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement and supports Medicare for All — not ObamaCare. He called for putting the head of “one ogre on a pike” in respect of a potential primary against Senator John Fetterman. He refuses to distinguish between Israel and Hamas. He was silent this October 7.Dr. El-Sayed pointedly refuses to affirm Israel’s right to exist, and he campaigned with the streamer Hasan Piker — the two attended a pool party the day before the primary vote. Mr. Piker celebrates Chairman Mao, has said that “Hamas is a thousand times better” than Israel, and judged that “America deserved 9/11.” He called Orthodox Jews “inbred,” a remark for which he has apologized. Dr. El-Sayed has reportedly told Mr. Piker to pipe down.Mr. Obama’s backstage parlay with Dr. El-Sayed could be awkward given what the Michigander has said about the 44th president in the past. In 2012 Dr. El-Sayed wrote in the Huffington Post that Mr. Obama “was not the right choice — he just wasn’t the wrong one. This leader has perpetuated war, violated our civil liberties, deported more people from our shores than any other president before him, and the list of his failures goes on.”Dr. El-Sayed adds that his enthusiasm for Mr. Obama amounted to the “silly emotions of a naïve young man who didn’t understand that hope and change required more than flowery prose and a winning smile.” He concluded that America was not “better off” under Mr. Obama. In 2017, Dr. El-Sayed told Vox of his distaste for Mr. Obama’s “fairly centrist, middle-of-the-road Democratic policies.” Now, Mr. Obama has moved in Dr. El-Sayed’s direction. The Atlantic reckons that Mr. Obama, still easily the most popular politician in the country, “is in an awkward phase of his career — no longer young enough to be cool but still too young to be an elder statesman.” The magazine judges that the 44th president is “attuned to shifts in the Democratic Party” — and is eager not to be left behind. While he did not endorse Mayor Zohran Mamdani, he offered to be a “sounding board” and the two have been in touch.Mr. Obama’s record as what Politico calls the Democratic Party’s “closer-in-chief” is hardly unblemished. He couldn’t hoist Secretary of State Hillary Clinton or Vice President Harris to the White House. With Presidents Clinton and Biden diminished, Mr. Obama is the Democrats’ best campaign asset. That he will lend his formidable talents to a candidate as radical as Dr. El-Sayed speaks volumes about who has the audacity to hope these days.

The Obama — El-Sayed Ticket

The Obama — El-Sayed Ticket

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