'When the going gets tough' enters Obama

The time has come for Barack and Michelle Obama. The former president and the best-loved first lady of the last fifty years will take the stage alongside Kamala Harris in two states considered decisive for the presidential victory on 5 November: Georgia and Michigan.

"When the going gets tough, the tough get going," Barack Obama is said to have told his staff, with a smile, echoing the words of John Belushi in the movie Animal House. And there is no doubt that the Obama couple has remained a reference not only for Democratic voters, for their civic commitment and battles for women's and minority rights.

With less than twenty days to go before the election, Kamala Harris' goal is to get more Americans to vote, especially in the Swing States, the seven states considered in the balance and therefore decisive. The average of the latest polls, compiled by RealClearPolitics, gives Trump a slight advantage, never more than one percentage point, over Harris - 48.2% versus 47.5% of the overall voting intentions - in the seven disputed states that include not only Georgia and Michigan, but also Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, North Carolina, Arizona and Nevada.

"Kamala Harris has spent her life fighting for people who need a voice and a chance and she will continue to fight for you," Barack Obama said in an ad released yesterday for the Democratic nominee for the White House. "That's the kind of person I'm proud to vote for and that's the kind of president we need," the former president added when interviewed by actress Eva Longoria, calling Donald Trump "someone who only thinks of himself."

The Democratic campaign has indicated that former President Obama will join the Democratic nominee on 24 October in Georgia, where early voting has already begun. While his wife Michelle will be in Michigan on 26 October with Harris and vice presidential nominee, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, on the first day of early voting.