Former U.S. President Barack Obama was introduced on stage by his wife Michelle, whom most Democrats wish to see as President of the United States.
Former U.S. President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle confirmed their status as stars of the Democratic Party with speeches delivered at the National Convention, urging Americans to support Kamala Harris, the party’s candidate in the presidential elections on November 5, against Donald Trump.
The first African American president of the United States, Barack Obama, is using his significant political capital to support Harris, who is also striving to make history by becoming the first woman, the first Black, and the first Asian American president of the country.
“We don’t need four more years of bullying, incompetence, and chaos. We’ve seen this movie before, and we all know that the sequel is usually worse,” emphasized Barack Obama.
“Yes, she can,” he added, adapting the slogan from his first campaign in 2008 “Yes, we can.”
“America is ready for a new chapter. America is ready for a better story. We are ready for President Kamala Harris,” he added.
Obama also took aim at Trump, the Republican who succeeded him in the White House in 2017, and praised President Joe Biden, who was also his vice president.
“History will remember Joe Biden as a president who defended democracy in a time of great peril. I am proud to call him my president, but even prouder to call him my friend,” Obama said, with the audience responding by chanting, “We love Joe.”
Former President Barack Obama was introduced on stage by his wife Michelle, whom most Democrats wish to see as President of the United States.
“America, hope is coming back,” highlighted Michelle Obama, another reference to her husband’s 2008 campaign.
She warned that Trump would try to distort Harris’s truth, just as he did “everything he could to make people afraid of us (the Obamas).”
“His limited and narrow-minded view of the world made him feel threatened by two hardworking, highly educated, successful people who just happened to be Black,” Michelle emphasized to the warm applause of those present.
“Who is going to tell him that the job he seeks might be one of those ‘jobs for Black people’?” she added. In his campaign, Trump has claimed that undocumented immigrants crossing the U.S. border are “stealing” “jobs for Black people.”
Both the billionaire himself and members of the Republican Party, along with supporters and internet trolls, have attacked Harris with racist and sexist comments. The attacks have intensified since the U.S. Vice President launched her campaign when Biden exited the race for the presidency.
“It’s the same old trick,” commented Michelle Obama. “They amplify malicious, misogynistic, racist lies as a substitute for real ideas and solutions that will actually make lives better.”
Michelle Obama also compared the energy in support of Harris at the Democratic National Convention and across the country with that of 2008 during her husband’s first campaign.
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“There is something wonderful, magical in the air,” she said. “A familiar feeling that has been buried too deep for too long. The contagious power of hope,” she noted.
“Hope is coming back,” she emphasized.
In his 2008 campaign, Barack Obama used the slogan “hope.”
However, Michelle Obama warned that Harris faces a major and difficult battle ahead and urged Democratic supporters to organize and mobilize other voters.
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“Regardless of how we feel today or tomorrow or the next day, it will be a tough fight (…) so we cannot become our own worst enemies,” she explained.
Before Biden withdrew from the race for the presidency, a Reuters/Ipsos poll had shown that only Michelle Obama could defeat Trump in the presidential elections, garnering 50% of the voting intention compared to 39% for the Republican.
However, she has repeatedly stated that she has no intention of running for office.