Go out and vote, our future depends on it: Obama to supporters

United States President Barack Obama has acknowledged that the presidential elections between Hillary Clinton of his Democratic party and her Republican rival Donald Trump would be close and urged has supporters to go out and vote in large numbers.

“I am here to tell you that this will be a close race and you cannot take it for granted,” Obama told several thousands of his supporters at an election rally on Thursday in Jacksonville, Florida -- a key battleground state.

Obama addressed two rallies in Florida and is scheduled to come back over the weekend.

“Because all the progress we’ve made these last eight years goes out the window if we don’t win this election. So we’ve got to work our hearts out in the next five days. We have to work like our future depends on it, because, you know what, our future depends on it,” he said.

Making a strong pitch for his former secretary of state, Obama said there’s only one candidate in this race who has devoted her entire life to that better America, and that is the next president of the United States, Hillary Clinton.

Making a contrast between the two presidential candidates, Obama said while Trump is not fit to enter the White House, Clinton is the most qualified person to ever run for this position.

“So the question is, if you got one person who you know is not qualified and you got another person who is eminently qualified, the only thing that’s left to do is vote. The only thing left to do it vote,” he said amidst applause from the audience.

“This is somebody who would do damage to our democracy, who is uniquely unqualified and shows no interest in becoming more qualified. And the good news is, Florida, all of you are uniquely qualified to make sure he doesn’t get the job,” he said.

“But you got to vote. You got to vote. You don’t have to just vote against something; you can vote for something.  Because there’s a candidate in this race who’s actually worthy of your vote. Somebody who is smart. Somebody who is steady. Somebody who is tested, maybe the most qualified person to ever run for this office -- and that is our next president, Hillary Clinton,” he added.

He also rued that Americans were listening and quietly watching rhetoric and crazy ideas of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.

“You hear what Trump says, and the problem is that it’s been happening so frequently that we have become numb to it. We almost act like it’s normal. We almost treat this like some reality TV show,” the US president said.

“We’ve become numb to it. And it’s not. It’s not. It’s not acceptable. It’s not normal. You can’t make an excuse for it. You can’t pretend it’s not happening,” he said.

 Image: US President Barack Obama speaks during a campaign rally in support of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton in Florida. Photograph: Joe Raedle/Getty Images