NEWARK - There have always been two Americas.

What that has to do with a race for New Jersey governor may be debatable.

Not to Barack Obama.

The former president began a speech Saturday night by running down the excesses and “just plain craziness” of the Trump Administration.

No surprise.

This was, of course, a Mikie Sherrill rally and Obama had a chore - get her over the finish line.

So he talked about Trump demolishing the east wing of the White House, firing prosecutors for doing their job and putting war plans on a public chat.

There were an estimated 5,000 people in the Essex County College gym and they - predictably - ate it up.

Sherrill, of course, talks about Trump endlessly on the campaign trail, often to the exclusion of local issues.

But then Obama said he was going to close with a more serious message.

The crowd got silent - almost that is.

Here was his point.

Since the beginning, the United States has been a country of the haves and the have nots. The two Americas.

That has not changed.

Sure, people know about slavery and the Jim Crow laws that followed, but it was more than that.

It was Irish and Italian immigrants who could not get a job and Jewish Americans who could not get into the school they wanted - right up and into the Twentieth Century.

Obama was rolling now and everyone was listening.

He got to the autocracy of today - what he called a "pretty dark place."

There is nothing all that unusual about a political system that seeks to punish the poor and the so-called outcasts to protect the wealth and power of the elites.

We've had it in different forms throughout the nearly 250-year history of the republic.

But the important thing to remember, he said, is that there was always a counter force - a political movement that challenged the elites.

And at this time here in New Jersey, that's Mikie Sherrill.

Yes, this is only one state, but this is one of the few elections in town. Still, it seemed an awfully big challenge to give Sherrill.

Soon, they embraced as all politicians do at a time like this.

And the crowd cheered and cheered.

Sherrill herself has made this New Jersey race a national race. Obama was just following the script.

The crowd was still buzzing 15 minutes after Obama and Sherrill left the stage.

Soon, the crowd exited and Obama presumably left New Jersey and headed home.

Not Sherrill. She has a mission to complete.