CHICAGO — Former President Barack Obama was a homecoming king on the second night of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
But Obama, who has called Chicago home since 1985, seemed mindful of his place as a party elder who can shine a spotlight on Vice President Kamala Harris and the risk that he can overshadow her.
Obama’s closing convention address, his sixth, showcased the soaring rhetoric, and cadence, for which the former president has become known as he delivered a strident defense of President Joe Biden and Harris — and a takedown of former President Donald Trump — before November.
“I’m feeling hopeful because this convention has always been pretty good to kids with funny names who believe in a country where anything is possible,” Obama told the crowd in the United Center Tuesday to welcome chants of “Yes, we can!” “Because we have the chance to elect someone who’s spent her entire life trying to give people the same chances America gave her.
“Someone who sees you and hears you and will get up every single day and fight for you: the next president of the United States of America, Kamala Harris,” he said.
Of Biden, Obama conceded he and his former vice president were “from different backgrounds” but “became brothers,” praising his “smarts,” “experience,” “empathy,” and “decency.”
“History will remember Joe Biden as a president who defended democracy at a moment of great danger,” he said. “I am proud to call him my president but even prouder to call him my friend.”
Biden is reportedly still reeling from the lack of public support he received from the likes of the Obamas and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) amid pressure on him to step down as the 2024 Democratic nominee. Biden left the convention for California on Monday night after his swansong address.
Of Trump, Obama criticized his successor’s “constant stream of gripes and grievances that’s actually gotten worse now that he’s afraid of losing to Kamala,” warning “the sequel’s usually worse.”
“Make no mistake: It will be a fight,” he said. “For all the rallies and all the memes, this will still be a tight race in a closely divided country — a country where too many Americans are still struggling and don’t believe government can help.”
As he did during his breakthrough convention address in 2004, Obama appealed for bipartisanship, saying the country wants “something better” and to “be better.”
“Here’s the good news: All across America, in big cities and small towns, away from all the noise, the ties that bind us together are still there,” he said. “We still coach Little League and look out for our elderly neighbors. We still feed the hungry in churches and mosques and synagogues and share the same pride when our Olympic athletes compete for the gold because the vast majority of us don’t want to live in a country that’s bitter and divided.”
But Obama, who met Harris during his 2004 campaign to represent Illinois in the U.S. Senate and again during his 2008 bid for the presidency, had to be careful not to cast a shadow on Harris, another former senator, as she introduces herself to the country less than 100 days before the election, though former first lady Michelle Obama arguably upstaged him Tuesday night.
“We are ready for a President Kamala Harris and Kamala Harris is ready for the job,” he said, with chants of “Yes, she can!”
Meanwhile, Harris was elsewhere, her campaign deciding to host a rally at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, where Trump had his Republican convention last month.
Obamas carry star power
On the sidelines of the New York delegation’s breakfast downtown near the river that morning, New York City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams predicted she would probably greet Barack and Michelle Obama by “screaming” her head off.
“The Obamas will always be the stars,” Adams, the first black woman to be her city’s speaker, told the Washington Examiner Tuesday. “They will always be in the cosmos of the exquisitely amazing individuals that they are and the couple that they are, the couple that they present to the world.
“I will not make any apologies for my behavior,” she quipped.
During the Michigan delegation’s breakfast near Grant Park, where Barack Obama celebrated his 2008 victory, Gov. Wes Moore (D-MD), who, like Harris, has been compared to the former president, told the Washington Examiner he was “so excited … to see both Obamas tonight,” before being whisked away by his security detail.
After his own remarks to the Michiganders, Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA), Barack Obama’s Commerce Department deputy assistant secretary, avoided a question from the Washington Examiner regarding the danger of the former president overshadowing Harris.
“He’s the greatest modern figure in American political life,” Khanna said. “I’m really excited about his speech.”
But Michigan 12th Congressional District Democratic Party Chairman Kevin Tolbert conceded Barack Obama has “vibrant energy and that ability to be cerebral yet lead and that passion,” although the former president has been scrutinized for his tendency to be professorial.
Michigan delegate Nicole Wells Stallworth, 47, said she agreed, contending there “is room for everyone” in the Democratic Party and “that’s the beauty of it.”
Afterward on the convention floor, Indiana delegate Alex Burton, 35, dismissed the idea that Harris’s counter-programming was a strategy to prevent a direct comparison between the Obamas and the vice president.
“The United Center was filled at the same time the Fiserv Forum was filled in Milwaukee,” the Evansville City Council member told the Washington Examiner. “Here in the Midwest, which is going to send and I believe is sending a strong message for what’s to come in the coming weeks in the polls and the Harris-Walz ticket continues to gain strength, not only in the Midwest, but all across the country.”
Democratic National Committee guests Rev. Tandria and Michael Robertson, who live in Chicago, bristled at the suggestion that the Democratic Party was the Obamas’ party.
“They can’t help who they are, but they have never done anything from a selfish point of view,” Michael Robertson told the Washington Examiner. “It’s always been to serve, so it’s not theirs.”
“Even with the video from Kamala and Tim being in Milwaukee, all that gave me the opportunity to do is see two huge, overpacked edifices, as opposed to one,” Tandria Robertson said. “And we know who’s concerned about crowds, you understand? So it was amazing that we could all be in two places at one time, just as we’re all over the country when it comes to supporting Kamala Harris and Tim Walz.”
Former Obama White House spokesman Eric Schultz previewed that the former president’s address would underscore why Harris and Walz “are precisely the leaders the country needs right now” and remind people of “the values at stake in this election and at the heart of our politics” despite speculation he delayed his endorsement of her because he was concerned about her electoral prospects.
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“Since 2020, President Obama has been in regular touch with Vice President Harris to provide counsel and be a sounding board whenever asked,” another Obama source told the Washington Examiner. “Over the last few months, they’ve been in close contact, and he has offered to support her campaign in any way that he can — including policy or strategic advice, fundraising, and of course campaign travel to help get out the vote.”
As Harris tries to reconstruct Obama’s coalition of women, young people, and minority voters in the Sun Belt states of Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, and North Carolina, the former president is expected to help Harris with fundraising, advertising, and outreach, incorporating cross-country travel, in the fall.
