Barack Obama doesn't think voting will make the country perfect. But he wants you to do it anyway.

[View in browser]( [Mother Jones Daily Newsletter]( October 21, 2020 This afternoon, Barack Obama stopped by Philadelphia, the largest city in that crucial swing state of Pennsylvania, to urge people to elect his former vice president, Joe Biden, to the highest office in the land. At the roundtable of community leaders, Anthony Phillips, the executive director of a youth civic engagement organization in Philadelphia, asked the president, "Given our political and social atmosphere, why should young Black men care to be engaged in the political process?" Obama didn't mince words. "What I consistently try to communicate during this year, particularly when I’m talking to young brothers who may be cynical about what can happen, is to acknowledge to them that government and voting alone isn’t gonna change anything," he said. "Young people are sophisticated, so there’s no point in overhyping what happens." Obama admitted that his presidency had not solved all the nation's issues. But he likes to think he left the country a little bit better. Criminal justice reform under Attorney General Eric Holder meant that many Black men convicted of nonviolent drug crimes faced more lenient sentences than they may have under previous administrations. The Affordable Care Act insured more than 20 million Americans, saving countless lives. "The answer for young people when I talk to them is not that voting makes everything perfect," he said. "It's that it makes things better." We could afford to make the country better. Vote. —Abigail Weinberg P.S. NASA is going to "[announce an exciting new discovery about the Moon](" on Monday. Finally, something to look forward to. [ACLU]( [Top Story] [Top Story]( [Facebook Manipulated the News You See to Appease Republicans, Insiders Say]( Sources tell us the platform tweaked its code to help right-wing publishers and throttle sites like Mother Jones. BY MONIKA BAUERLEIN AND CLARA JEFFERY SPONSORED POST [Sponsored Content]( [Fight Climate Change With Every Purchase]( Swipe your card and plant a tree with Plant Your Change. THIS CONTENT WAS PAID FOR AND SPONSORED BY [PLANT YOUR CHANGE](. [Trending] [How Trump got away with hiding his Chinese business]( BY RUSS CHOMA [Barrett's confirmation could erode Americans' financial protections for a generation]( BY HANNAH LEVINTOVA ["He was throwing off cash": How an international fugitive tried to influence Trump's swamp]( BY DAN FRIEDMAN [How the most toxic, notorious online pro-Trump community tricked Reddit and got back online]( BY ALI BRELAND [ACLU]( [The Mother Jones Podcast] [Special Feature]( [How Biden Can Pull Off the Once-Unthinkable: Win Arizona]( Mother Jones reporter Fernanda Echavarri explains why Democrats are on the verge of winning a state they’ve won only once in 60 years. If they don’t screw it up. [Fiercely Independent] Support from readers allows Mother Jones to do journalism that doesn't just follow the pack. [Donate]( [Recharge] SOME GOOD NEWS, FOR ONCE [US Chess Champion Hikaru Nakamura Challenges Barack Obama to a Benefit Match for Team Biden]( It was only a matter of time before Hikaru Nakamura, the US chess champion and the world’s best and fastest blitz player, [challenged]( former President Obama to a benefit match for the Biden Victory Fund. Nakamura issued the call yesterday, inspired by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez [playing]( “Among Us” to mobilize voters in one of the most-watched Twitch streams of all time. Obama’s answer is pending. I’ve reached out to the former president to see if he’ll accept. Don’t hold your breath, but do hold hope—there’s precedent: Thomas Jefferson wrote about chess in his diary and sent letters about playing Benjamin Franklin before selling some chess books to James Monroe. James Madison played. John Quincy Adams played. As did Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, Rutherford Hayes, James Garfield, Grover Cleveland, William Howard Taft, Warren Harding, Theodore Roosevelt, Jimmy Carter, and Bill Clinton. Chelsea Clinton plays (and has online). At 10 years old, Nakamura became the youngest US player named a master and, at 15, the youngest to reach the game’s top title. No biggie. Preparation tip, President Obama: Memorize a crushing answer to Nakamura’s noted bongcloud opening and you’re fine. I’ll sweeten the deal. The winner of Nakamura vs. Obama gets to play my colleague Ben Dreyfuss, who runs the Mother Jones Daily newsletter (forward it or [sign up here]() and, according to lore, is an unparalleled chess mind. The winner of Nakamura-or-Obama vs. Dreyfuss gets to play me. I studied as a kid with Bobby Fischer’s coach and competed on that team with Joshua Waitzkin of Searching for Bobby Fischer before quitting for baseball, but have since returned (to middling chess adequacy). Come through, President Obama. Nakamura needs you. Democracy needs you. “Amtrak Joe” needs you. As a student and scholar of strategy, tactics, and theory, you’ve got a fair shot against Nakamura. Never mind that Fischer said “the object” of chess “is to crush the opponent’s mind.” It’s not. And Garry Kasparov still competes but he’s more into politics these days, and I’ll handle Kasparov if he gets out of line in the comments. If you, readers, feel the heat and want to see Obama stomp Nakamura in the name of voter mobilization, forward this and tag [@GMHikaru]( and [@BarackObama](; just don’t tag [@HansenChess](, or chairs might fly. P.S. There are more possible chess games than the number of atoms in the universe. —Daniel King Did you enjoy this newsletter? Help us out by [forwarding]( it to a friend or sharing it on [Facebook]( and [Twitter](. [Mother Jones]( [Donate]( [Subscribe]( This message was sent to {EMAIL}. To change the messages you receive from us, you can [edit your email preferences]( or [unsubscribe from all mailings.]( For advertising opportunities see our online [media kit.]( Were you forwarded this email? [Sign up for Mother Jones' newsletters today.]( [www.MotherJones.com]( PO Box 8539, Big Sandy, TX 75755