text: It was part mockery, part shock-to-the-system wake-up call. 
   
   Donald Trump is a nasty, hateful charlatan selling a false message to African-Americans and the rest of the country that puts everything President Barack Obama has done in office and stood for at risk, Obama said Saturday night, in a rip-roaring speech to the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation dinner in Washington. 
   
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   Declaring he would consider it “a personal insult, an insult to my legacy” if black turnout falters for Hillary Clinton, Obama did what he got reamed for doing almost exactly two years ago, in the heat of midterm elections in which disdain for him was the defining force: Yes, he said, he is pretty much on the ballot in November. 
   
   “My name may not be on the ballot, but our progress is on the ballot,” Obama said, his voice rising to a shout as he went well beyond what sources familiar with the speech said was a tamer version of the riff in the prepared remarks. “Tolerance is on the ballot. Democracy is on the ballot. Justice is on the ballot. Good schools are on the ballot. Ending mass incarceration, that’s on the ballot right now.” 
   
   Hope and change was his campaign slogan eight years ago. This year, Obama said, Trump presents a nightmarish vision of change that he urged the country to reject. 
   
   “Hope is on the ballot,” he said, laying out the choice. “And fear is on the ballot too.” 
   
   Following Clinton on stage, Obama kicked off his remarks by taking on Trump’s attempt to move away from his long history of raising doubts about the president’s origins. 
   
   “If there’s an extra spring in my step tonight,” Obama said, smiling. “I am so relieved that the whole birther thing is over.” 
   
   Obama stressed that the issue isn’t just birtherism’s racism, but the kind of low-substance personality Trump has cultivated and brought to his campaign. 
   
   “ISIL, North Korea, poverty, climate change — none of those things weighed on my mind like the validity of my birth certificate,” Obama said, in a tone dripping with sarcasm. 
   
   “To think, that with just 124 days to go, just under the wire, we got that resolved. That’s a boost for me in the home stretch,” he laughed. "In other breaking news, the world is round, not flat.” 
   
   But mostly, Obama raged. Boiling hotter than at his fall campaign launch event for Clinton in Philadelphia last week, he let loose at a candidate he presented as an existential threat to black America. 
   
   The president sneered at Trump’s supposed appeal to African-Americans, being delivered almost simultaneously at a campaign event in Colorado, as the Republican ticked through a list of endemic problems and finished, “Vote for Donald Trump, what do you have to lose? I will fix it.” 
   
   “We do have challenges,” Obama said, rebutting him, “but we’re not stupid.” 
   
   Trump, Obama said, tells people that African-Americans have never had it worse, holding a beat to let the meaning sink in that the Republican nominee is making that claim as the first black president finishes his second term. 
   
   Trump “missed that whole civics lesson about slavery and Jim Crow,” Obama said, giving a plug to the new Smithsonian African-American Museum opening on the Mall this week. “We’ve got a museum for him to visit. So he can tune in.” 
   
   Using the museum’s opening to launch into a consideration of the arc of African-American progress, he said people who say their vote doesn’t count are an insult to the people who were beaten and killed registering voters during the civil rights movement. People who don’t stand up for their community, he said, shame the memories of the slaves who suffered extra lashes for learning how to read. 
   
   The job of everyone in the audience, Obama said, and everyone who cared, was to vote and to get more voters registered — not just to stop Trump, but to stop anyone who stands with him, and anyone who has backed voter ID laws targeted at suppressing black voters while pretending to chase a problem of mass voter fraud for which there is no evidence. 
   
   The worst part of those laws, Obama said, is that they are often backed by the same people who stop any kind of gun control measures, which does hurt the black community. 
   
   That, he said, shows that Republicans are “apparently more afraid of a ballot than a bullet.” ||||| Washington (CNN) President Barack Obama delivered an impassioned plea to the African-American community Saturday night to help stop Donald Trump, saying he would consider it a "personal insult" to his legacy if black voters didn't turn out for Hillary Clinton. 
   
   Addressing the Congressional Black Caucus gala for the last time as president, Obama warned that while his name would not be on the ballot in November, all of the progress that the country has made over the last eight years was on the line. 
   
   "If I hear anybody saying their vote does not matter, that it doesn't matter who we elect -- read up on your history. It matters. We've got to get people to vote," Obama said. "I will consider it a personal insult -- an insult to my legacy -- if this community lets down its guard and fails to activate itself in this election. You want to give me a good sendoff? Go vote." 
   
   Obama's speech -- coming less than two months away from Election Day -- marked some of his harshest words yet about Trump, as well as his most forceful call on the black community to get behind Clinton. 
   
   His remarks also had lighter moments -- particularly as he addressed the so-called "birther" controversy. The second-term president began his speech by remarking: "There's an extra spring in my step tonight. I don't know about you guys, but I am so relieved that the whole 'birther' thing is over." 
   
   Chuckling, the President said, "I mean: ISIL, North Korea, poverty, climate change -- none of those things weighed on my mind like the validity of my birth certificate. And to think: that with just a 124 days to go, under the wire, we got that resolved." 
   
   Obama was referring to Trump's admission this week that the president was born in the United States . Trump has long supported the birther theory, raising questions about Obama's birthplace and demanding that the president present his birth certificate as proof of his origin. 
   
   Obama's tone, however, soon turned serious as he outlined what he said was at stake in the election. 
   
   "You may have heard Hillary's opponent in this election say that there's never been a worse time to be a black person. I mean, he missed that whole civics lesson about slavery or Jim Crow," Obama said. "But we've got a museum for him to visit, so he can tune in. We will educate him." 
   
   In harsh rebuke of Trump, Obama referred to the businessman as "somebody who has fought against civil rights and fought against equality and who has shown no regard for working people most of his life." 
   
   On Trump's quest to win over African-American voters, Obama quipped: "Well, we do have challenges, but we're not stupid." 
   
   JUST WATCHED First lady Michelle Obama addresses birther controversy Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH First lady Michelle Obama addresses birther controversy 00:51 
   
   Clinton lauds Obama 
   
   Speaking moments before the president, Clinton lauded Obama and also took on the birther controversy that has been swirling. 
   
   "Even when hateful nonsense is thrown their way, Barack, Michelle, their two beautiful daughters have represented our country with class, grace and integrity," said Clinton, who served as Obama's secretary of state. 
   
   She added, "Mr. President, not only do we know you are an American, you are a great American." 
   
   Clinton, who accepted the group's "Trailblazer Award" on Saturday night for becoming the first female presidential candidate for a major political party, nodded to Trump when she said that the choice in November "is not about golf course promotions or birth certificates, it comes down to who will fight for the forgotten." 
   
   "We can't let Barack Obama's legacy fall into the hands of someone who doesn't understand that, whose dangerous divisive vision for our country will drag us backwards," she said, though she never mentioned Trump's name. 
   
   Obamas stumping for Clinton 
   
   Clinton's campaign is relying on the Obamas to help persuade the coalition of minorities, young people and women who propelled them to the White House to cast ballots for this year's Democratic candidate. The President made his first solo appeal this week, appearing at a campaign rally in Philadelphia and phoning in to African-American radio to talk up Clinton. 
   
   "I get frustrated hearing folks say, 'You know, we're so excited with Barack, we love Michelle, they take Hillary for granted,'" Obama told syndicated host Frankie Darcell. "This is not a reality show. This is not something where it's all flash and fizzle." 
   
   On Friday, First Lady Michelle Obama made her first campaign appearance of 2016, trying to convince her and her husband's supporters at a Virginia rally that Clinton is also worthy of their votes. 
   
   "When I hear folks saying they're not inspired this this election, I disagree. I am inspired," she said, urging the crowd to register to vote and actually cast ballots for Clinton.
target: – Members of the Congressional Black Caucus, some of whom may have been having a hard time getting excited about voting for Hillary Clinton, got an angry warning Saturday night about a Trump presidency from the man preparing to pack up and leave the Oval Office in January. "You may have heard Hillary's opponent in this election say that there's never been a worse time to be a black person," President Obama said in his final address to the group as president, per CNN. "I mean, he missed that whole civics lesson about slavery or Jim Crow," adding, "we will educate him." As for the black community's supposed indifference about this election, "read up on your history. It matters. I will consider it a personal insult—an insult to my legacy—if this community lets down its guard and fails to activate itself in this election. You want to give me a good sendoff? Go vote." More from the speech, which Politico calls "rip-roaring": On what's on the ballot: “My name may not be on the ballot, but our progress is on the ballot. Tolerance is on the ballot. Democracy is on the ballot. Justice is on the ballot. Good schools are on the ballot. Ending mass incarceration, that’s on the ballot right now.” Sources tell Politico Obama strayed significantly from a more staid version of the speech. On Donald Trump: He's "somebody who has fought against civil rights and fought against equality and who has shown no regard for working people most of his life." On the end of the birther controversy: "I mean: (ISIS), North Korea, poverty, climate change—none of those things weighed on my mind like the validity of my birth certificate. And to think: that with just a 124 days to go, under the wire, we got that resolved."