Race between Trump and Clinton is like imaginary past vs future: Obama

Washington: US President Barack Obama has thrown his weight behind Hillary Clinton as he likened the presidential race between the former secretary of state and real estate tycoon Donald Trump to a choice between "future and imaginary past".

"This is a choice between whether we are going to cling to some imaginary past or whether we're going to reach for the future," Obama said in his maiden joint campaign rally with Clinton at Charlotte in North Carolina yesterday.

"This November, in this election, you are going to have a very clear choice to make; between two fundamentally different visions of where America should go. And this isn't even really a choice between left and right or Democrat or Republican," he said in his address to thousands of Clinton supporters.

"This is about whether we have an America that works for everybody, or just a few people," Obama said, making a passionate plea to the countrymen to support his former secretary of state for the next presidential elections on November 8.

In his address, Obama made no mention of the FBI decision not to recommend chargesheet against Clinton. He said that he values Clinton's experience and judgement.

In 2008, Obama created history by becoming the first non- White male to be elected as the US president. If elected, Clinton would be the first woman to be the US president.

"Hillary is not somebody who fears the future. She believes that it is ours to shape, the same way it's always been. Hillary understands that we make our own destiny as long as we're together, as long as we think of ourselves not as just a collection of individuals or a collection of interest groups or a collection of states, but as a United States of America," Obama said.

"She knows that when it comes to our economy. Because she knows our economy works best not when it only benefits a few at the top, but when everybody's got a fair shot at success," he said.

Without naming Trump, Obama lashed out at the Republican presidential nominee. "A bunch of phony bluster doesn't keep us safe. And she understands that we can't retreat from a world that needs American leadership," he said.

"That's why she offers a smarter approach that uses every element of American power to protect our people and to protect our allies. She is and will be a stateswoman who makes us proud around the world," Obama said.