Barack and Michelle Obama held the Democratic National Convention in thrall on Tuesday night, while holding Republican candidate ex-President Donald Trump up to ridicule for racism and fostering division for personal and political gain.
The Obamas were the underpinnings of a night of multitasking in Democrats’ bid to hold the White House in this November’s election. The goal was to fully introduce presidential nominee Kamala Harris to a national audience, court independent and Republican voters, and get under Trump’s skin. All three objectives were achieved.
An accomplished basketball player, ex-President Obama showed his ability to pivot. In uplifting tones, he declared: “Our task is to show that democracy can actually deliver . . . The vast majority of us do not want to live in a country bitter and divided.”
Michele Obama skewered Barack’s successor. Trump has claimed, incorrectly, that immigrants to America are taking “Black jobs.” Obama delivered a cutting rejoinder. Without mentioning Trump’s name, he observed: “Who’s going to tell him that the job he’s currently seeking is one of those ‘Black jobs’?”
Vice President Harris is the daughter of African American and South Asian parents. Michelle Obama contrasted her background with that of Trump, whose father Fred Trump seeded his son’s career as a real estate magnate. Donald Trump benefited from “the generic affirmative action of generic wealth,” Ms. Obama declared. “Someone might want to tell (him) that that the jub he is currently seeking is one of those Black jobs.”
The Obamas had a lengthy score to settle, after years of suffering Trump’s lies. Trump fostered “birtherism,” the false claim that Barack Obama was not born in the United States. He tried to repeal the Affordable Care Act, chief achievement of the Obama Administration.
The Republican Party, under Trump, has become a “cult of personality,” Barack Obama declared. Michelle Obama contrasted Harris’ life with that of Trump, saying: “If we see a mountain in front of us, we don’t expect there to be an escalator waiting to take us to the top. No. We get our heads down. We get to work. In America, we do something.”
The theme was echoed by other speakers. Trump has made much of his wealth. Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, heir to the Hyatt hotels fortune, threw the boastfulness back on the former president. “Take it from an actual billionaire,” said Pritzker, “he (Trump) is rich in only one thing – stupidity.” Added the governor, everything Trump has achieved in life has come from “hurting someone else.”
Mesa, Arizona, Mayor John Giles, a Republican, came to the podium, taking note of Trump’s ridicule of “my hero John McCain,” and declared his support for Harris. “Let us put an adult in the room.” Former Trump press secretary Stephanie Grisham delivered a similar message, saying: “I love my country more than my party.”
Delegates to political conventions have been known to ignore speakers at the podium. Bill Clinton famously bombed speaking at the 1988 Democratic Convention. But Barack Obama vaulted to national recognition with his 2004 keynote. It was likewise Tuesday night, evoking delegates again to chant the 2008 Obama campaign slogan: “Yes, we can.”
The evening’s charming moments came as “second gentleman” Doug Imhoff described the romance with his wife Kamala Harris, and her warm relationship with his two children from a previous marriage. The couple will mark their wedding anniversary on Thursday night as Harris delivers her convention acceptance speech.
The evening put it all together. The roll call of the states, usually boring, featured music, celebrities and captured features from all corners of the nation. Michelle Obama delivered a touching tribute to the life of her recently deceased mother Marian Robinson. Bernie Sanders held forth with his customary denunciation of tax breaks to “millionaires and billionaires.”
Grisham and Giles explained why it’s O.K. for Republicans to cross over and cast votes for the Democratic ticket of Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. Illinois Sen. Tammy Duckworth, who lost both legs serving in Iraq, pinned the label of draft dodger on Trump, recalling that he used bone spurs to avoid serving in the Vietnam War.
Barack Obama first commanded attention as keynoter of the Democrats’ 2004 convention in Boston, filled a football stadium in Denver on his way to the presidency in 2008. In 2024, he proclaimed that the “torch has been passed” to Harris and Walz and underscored the unity message first spoken 20 years ago: “America is ready for a new chapter. America is ready for a better story.”
It’s too bad there are so few politicians — and sadly, the only one is Trump — who have a conversational style and can just talk to people. Teddy Kennedy was probably the worst, but they’re almost all bad… That damned “oratorical” style with big booming voices .. don’t misunderstand me — yes, Trump is conversational, but he talks garbage and nonsense and worse. I’m not praising him, but simply observing his very effective casual conversational style.
His way of presenting is brilliant and could be repeated by any smart leader who has something to say.
If that’s my way of commenting on the Obamas, it is.
Hey I voted for him twice and I was pleased to do so and I would vote for him again. I’d probably even vote for Michele though I have really no idea why.
And I even agree substantively for the most part with Barack. But his way of presenting things is too indirect for me. And a bit condescending. I thought his reference to being charitable to old people because they’re slow & mean well was patronizing and politically ineffective.
As to the rest, I’m voting against Trump for any competent mainstream Democrat, which Harris certainly is, and I really don’t need to know a whole lot more so haven’t listened…. maybe I’m scared to hear one of them talk about the importance of pronouns and land acknowledgments.
Maybe it will come out in the campaign, but they’re important thing for Harris & Walz (and all of their big time surrogates) should be to reach out to swing voters… I would give up on current-day Republicans… and acknowledge to them that they’re probably not going to agree with them on a lot of policy matters except for one big matter:
preserving constitutional government.
Of course, maybe their polls show that swing people are so low information that they really don’t care about elections and the rule of law. Alas.
God bless us all.