Obamas elevate Kamala Harris’ presidential bid at Chicago convention

CHICAGO – The Democratic Party’s golden couple propelled the nascent presidential bid of Ms Kamala Harris into orbit by strongly endorsing the US Vice-President at the Democratic convention in the Windy City.

Both former president Barack Obama and his wife Michelle, who have rock-star status and considerable heft within the Democratic Party, seemed to anoint Ms Harris as the inheritor of their legacy.

“America is ready for a new chapter. America’s ready for a better story. We are ready for a President Kamala Harris,” said Mr Obama, 63, in his 30-minute speech on Aug 20, the second day of the Democratic National Convention.

In her speech before her husband’s, Mrs Obama, 60, said: “My girl Kamala Harris is more than ready for this moment. She is one of the most qualified people ever to seek the office of the presidency.”

The crowd, packing Chicago’s 20,000-capacity United Centre arena, hung on every word, evoking Mr Obama’s own 2008 campaign when he battled incredible odds to become the country’s first black president.

In 2024, Vice-President Harris is also seeking to extend the traditional boundaries of American politics,

drawing an inevitable comparison with Mr Obama

. She hopes to become the first woman president and the first black woman to win the White House.

Ms Harris was not in attendance, however, as the Obamas spoke. She was instead campaigning about 100km away, in the key swing state of Wisconsin. 

Neither was President Joe Biden present in the stadium, though in an hour-long speech he gave on the opening day of the convention, he said choosing Ms Harris as his vice-president was the best decision of his 50-year-long career in politics. 

He left for a vacation shortly after and will not make another appearance at the convention.

With large personalities such as former presidents staying out of the way of one another, the show of party unity seemed a bit forced.

Mr Obama, for instance, did not meet Mr Biden, though he praised the President for “passing the torch” to the next generation.

It is widely known that Mr Obama was among party leaders who were opposed to Mr Biden seeking a second term at 81 because of concerns about his declining mental acuity and his ability to defeat Republican nominee Donald Trump.

After insisting that he would run,

Mr Biden dropped out on July 21

and endorsed Ms Harris.

In a matter of days, Ms Harris turned the party’s fortunes around. But she has struggled to define herself, although Americans have responded well to her broad thrust of “not going back” to the Trump years. 

This is where the Obamas came in, elevating her with ease while they defined what was at stake in this election.

Warning that it would be a “tight race in a closely divided country”, Mr Obama nevertheless described Trump as “pretty stale”.

He said: “We don’t need four more years of bluster and chaos. We’ve seen that movie, and we all know that the sequel’s usually worse.” 

His wife, who has never held office but is more popular than him, also

used humour to mock Trump’s claim

that illegal immigrants are taking jobs away from African-Americans.

“Who’s going to tell him that the job he’s currently seeking might just be one of those black jobs?” she said as the crowd burst into applause.

In some ways, it felt like the Obamas were taking on Trump themselves, having once been targets. During Mr Obama’s first run, Trump claimed that the former president’s birth certificate was a forgery and that he was secretly a Muslim.

Mr Obama was born in Hawaii to an 18-year-old white woman from Kansas and an exchange student from Kenya, who abandoned the family two years later.

Mrs Obama warned party delegates that the same kind of attacks could be levelled against Ms Harris. The party had to be prepared to defend her and her running mate Tim Walz as the campaign intensifies ahead of the Nov 5 election, she added.

“They are not perfect, and like all of us, they will make mistakes. But luckily, y’all, this is not just on them. No, this is up to us, all of us, to be the solution that we seek,” she said. 

In the packed arena, thousands rose to their feet and echoed her as she implored them to not stay detached but to “do something”.

“Do something,” the crowd roared back.

In a sample of what is in store, Trump earlier in the day labelled Ms Harris the “ringleader” of a “Marxist attack on law enforcement” across the country as he campaigned in the neighbouring battleground state of Michigan.

“Kamala Harris will deliver crime, chaos, destruction and death,” he said.

The Obamas also outlined a strategic path. Mr Obama exhorted his partymen to help Ms Harris win over unaffiliated, independent Americans, who make up the largest group of voters. In most close elections, the independents make the difference between victory and defeat. 

“We need to remember that we have all got our blind spots and contradictions and prejudices, and that if we want to win over those who aren’t yet ready to support our candidates, we need to listen to their concerns and maybe learn something in the process,” said Mr Obama. 

“That’s how we can build a true democratic majority, one that can get things done,” he said.

“And by the way,” the former president added, his voice alternately rising and dipping with emphasis: “The rest of the world is watching to see if we can actually pull this off.”