Barack and Michelle Obama Focus on Hope For America’s Future at DNC
Democracy is worth fighting for and hope is making a comeback.
Those were the central themes Tuesday night as former First Lady Michelle Obama and her husband former President Barack Obama delivered a one-two punch at the Democratic National Convention. Each one delivered a no-holds-barred indictment of Republican candidate former President Donald Trump and an impassioned endorsement of Democratic candidate Kamala Harris as the agent of change that’s needed because “America is ready for a better story.”
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President Joe Biden’s speech Monday night was a look at American industry and his diplomatic achievements, as well as a knock on Trump’s economic policies, such as his $2 trillion tax cuts for wealthy individuals and corporations. In contrast, Barack and Michelle Obama focused on hope for America’s future and why Harris is the right person to lead the country.
The 44th president’s opening remarks gave kudos to No. 46, President Joe Biden: “When millions of our fellow citizens were sick and dying we needed a leader with the character to put politics aside and do what was right at a time when our economy was reeling. We needed a leader with the determination to drive what would become the world’s strongest recovery, 15 million jobs, higher wages, lower health care costs….History will remember Joe Biden as an outstanding president who defended democracy. Democracy, at a moment of great danger.”
And with the torch having been passed, Obama told attendees it was now time to “fight for the America we believe in,” noting how the race remains tight in a closely divided country.
“As we gather here tonight, the people who will decide this election are asking a very simple question: ‘Who will fight for me? Who’s thinking about my future, about my children’s future, about our future together?’ One thing is for certain, Donald Trump is not losing sleep over that question. He’s a 78-year-old billionaire who has not stopped whining about his problems,” Obama said.
He also described Trump as dangerous. “The truth is, Donald Trump sees power as nothing more than what it means to his ends. He wants the middle class to pay the price for another huge tax cut that would mostly help him and his rich friends,” Obama said. He noted that Trump killed a bipartisan immigration deal written in part by one of the most conservative Republicans in Congress, which would have helped secure our southern border. The reason? Trump thought that trying to actually solve the problem would hurt his campaign, Obama explained.
“We do not need four more years of bluster and bumbling chaos. We have seen that movie before, and we all know that the sequel is usually worse,” Obama said. “America is ready for a better story. We are ready for a new president, Kamala Harris. And Kamala Harris is ready for the job…. Kamala Harris won’t be focused on her problems. She’d be focused on yours.”
He spoke of her accomplishments as a prosecutor helping those who are under-represented, as well as vice president, such as fighting to lower the cost of health care and a cap on the cost of certain medications.
Obama also emphasized that unlike the “other side,” which plays on people’s fears and says that government is inherently corrupt and—because the game is rigged—that it’s okay to take what you want and just look after your own, “We have a different task.”
The platform of Harris and vice presidential candidate Tim Walz has a vision where everyone deserves a chance. But more importantly, it’s not just the two candidate’s vision, “that’s the Democratic Party’s vision,” Obama said.
Tuesday night’s Convention theme was “A Bold Vision for America’s Future,” emphasizing the Harris-Walz focus on an “opportunity economy.”
“In this new economy, we need a president who actually cares about the millions of people all across this country who wake up every single day to do the essential, often thankless work, to care for our sick, to clean our streets, to deliver our packages. We need a president who will stand up for their right to bargain for better wages and working conditions,” Obama said. “Kamala and Tim understand that when everybody gets a fair shot, we are all better off.”
That wasn’t just a swipe at Trump, but also at the GOP, which saw the bulk of manufacturing jobs moving overseas under Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford in the 1970’s to take advantage of cheaper labor.
Washington strategist Chris Krueger at TD Cowen said that a Trump win would see broad impact to the labor market since his stated goal is to implement the largest deportation effort in U.S. history, which could pave the way for other GOP policy changes. Those changes include the repeal of DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals; policy recipients are also known as “DREAMers”) and TPS (temporary protected status) for hundreds of thousands.
Obama also spoke about a true democratic majority where there’s mutual respect, eschewing the way politics have become so polarized. “And by the way, that does not just matter to the people in this country. The rest of the world is watching to see if we can actually pull this off,” he said. “No nation, no society, has ever tried to build a democracy as big and as diverse as ours…. And that’s why, when we uphold our values, the world’s a little brighter. When we don’t, the world’s a little dimmer and dictators and autocrats feel emboldened and, over time, we become less safe.”
As for other worldwide issues, such as human rights and climate change, Obama said America “shouldn’t be the world’s policeman, and we can’t eradicate every cruelty and injustice in the world, but America can be, and must be, a force for good, discouraging conflict, fighting disease, promoting human rights, protecting the planet from climate change, defending freedom, brokering peace.” That’s what Kamala Harris believes, as well as most Americans, he said.
And in another swipe at Trump’s value system, Obama said the working middle class that built America believed in the things that mattered, such as honesty and integrity, kindness, and hard work. “They weren’t impressed with braggarts or bullies. They didn’t think putting other people down lifted you up or made you strong.”
The former president made a strong case for a hopeful future under Harris—even quipping on how Trump’s stream of gripes and grievances have been getting worse now that he’s afraid of losing, from the childish nicknames to the crazy conspiracy theories and even “this weird obsession with crowd sizes.” But it was perhaps the former first lady who delivered what was a show-stopping indictment of Trump, setting the stage for her husband’s explanation of all the reasons why a second Trump administration is a no-starter.
“Hope is making a comeback,” the former First Lady said, as she spoke about the value system that built America, not Trump’s whining, cheating and pettiness that she described as unpresidential.
The Chicago native spoke about how her own moral compass was set high by her mother, and how her and Harris’s mother had different beginnings and yet both built lives based on the same foundational values. “Even though our mothers grew up an ocean apart, they shared the same belief in the promise of this country,” Obama said. “That’s why her mother moved here from India at 19. It’s why she taught Kamala about justice, about the obligation to lift others up, about our responsibility to give more than we take.”
Obama spoke about how Harris’s mother told her daughter not to sit around and complain and, instead, “do something,” a phrase that became the rallying chant later when she exhorted Americans to get out and vote and get out and help with the campaign because it’s time to “do something.”
In a dig at Trump whose hotels and casino businesses have filed for bankruptcy six times between 1991 and 2009, Obama said: “If we bankrupt the business or choke in a crisis, we don’t get a second, third, or fourth chance. If things don’t go our way, we don’t have the luxury of whining or cheating others to get further ahead. No, we don’t get to change the rules. So we always win if we see a mountain in front of us, we don’t expect there to be an escalator waiting to dig us to the top….We get to work in America. We do something.”
At the 2016 DNC, Obama’s catchphrase was “When they go low, we go high.” Tuesday night, she focused on going small, another attack on Trump. Taking away freedoms, demonizing children for being who they are and loving who they love—a reference to Trump’s policy platform that attacks the LGBTQ+ community—doesn’t make anybody’s life better, and instead “only makes us small.”
“Let me tell you this, going small is never the answer. Going small is the opposite of what we teach our kids. Going small is petty. It’s unhealthy, and, quite frankly, it’s unpresidential,” Obama said, adding that no one should accept this from any seeking the highest office and how there’s no reason why anyone should “normalize that type of backward leadership.”
“In 77 days, we have the power to turn our country away from the fear division and smallness of the past, we have the power to marry our hope with our action,” Obama said, telling everyone to go out and do something because the election will be close in some states.
Earlier in the evening, a roll call saw delegates at the DNC officially nominate Harris as the Democratic candidate for president. She is set to give her acceptance speech on Thursday night.
In a cut-away to Milwaukee where Harris and her running mate Walz were campaigning, Harris said: “This is not just about us versus Donald Trump. This is about two very different visions for our nation. One is focused on the future; the other is focused on the past.”
“We believe in a future where we build an opportunity economy, where every American has the opportunity to own a home, start a business and build wealth, including intergenerational wealth. That’s what we believe in. We believe in the future of our country,” Harris added.