Barack and Michelle Obama have resurfaced, with a vengeance.
Doug Emhoff, the nation's second gentleman, displayed his goofy charm.
Several rhetorical torches were passed.
After thanking Joe Biden and bidding him farewell, the second night of the Democratic National Convention focused all its attention on Kamala Harris, with a symbolic roll call vote and a barrage of attacks against Donald Trump.
Leading the charge were the former president and his wife, who seemed to unleash years of pent-up passion in a single, volcanic speech.
Flammable-suited columnists Mark Z. Barabak and Anita Chabria took it all in and got these observations from Chicago.
BarabacEight years ago, when Democrats gathered to nominate Hillary Clinton, then-First Lady Michelle Obama urged them to move past the ugliness of the race against the vitriolic Trump.
Forget all that. There was not a hint of “they go low, we go high” restraint when Obama took the stage Tuesday night in his hometown.
“For years, Donald Trump did everything in his power to make people fear us,” she said of her and her husband. “His limited and narrow view of the world made him feel threatened by the existence of two hard-working, highly educated, successful people who happened to be black.”
He spoke with the strength of an uncoiled spring and the determination of a clenched fist.
“Who’s going to tell him that the job he’s currently looking for might be one of those ‘black jobs’?” Obama said, using Trump’s disoriented phrase. “It’s his old scam: doubling down on ugly, misogynistic, racist lies as a substitute for real ideas and solutions that will actually improve people’s lives.”
The roar inside the convention hall would have blown the roof off if it hadn't been so firmly fixed.
ChabriaWhat we saw with Michelle and Barack's speeches was the difference between 2020 and 2024: not so much an evolution of the Obamas but an evolution of America.
As Barack Obama noted, it has been 16 years since he appeared at the Democratic National Convention to accept the nomination.
In many ugly and retrograde ways, the rise of the MAGA wing of the Republican Party was a response to his presidency, the emergence of a semi-dormant but potent racism lurking just beneath our surface that was ultimately ignited by the idea of Black and Brown Americans gaining political equality.
That came as a surprise to some of us and was old news to many others, but it's worth noting that even a few months ago, the buzz was that an African-American or Asian-American woman had no chance of being elected president.
But here we are, in the midst of the defining moment for the rise of MAGA. I've said it before: this election is as much about our ideals and values as it is about the candidates.
As Barack Obama said: “Donald Trump wants us to think that this country is irremediably divided between us and them; between the real Americans who support him and the foreigners who don't. And he wants you to think that you'll be richer and safer if you just give him the power to put those “other” people in their place.”
Harris’s campaign slogan — “We’re not going back” — directly addresses that problem.
What do you think?
BarabacWhen his turn came, the former president appeared more emotionally restrained, in keeping with his character, but no less fierce.
He mocked Trump as “a 78-year-old billionaire who hasn’t stopped complaining about his problems since he rode down his golden escalator nine years ago.”
He described Trump as a washed-up character, with a style that no longer works and an annoying neighbor who keeps his leaf blower on all the time (although, in Trump's case, it's his mouth).
“If it’s a neighbor saying it, it’s exhausting,” Obama said. “If it’s a president saying it, it’s just dangerous.”
Michelle Obama confronted Trump with unbridled fury. The former president attacked her with cold disdain.
He even made a Freudian reference to Trump’s “weird obsession with crowd sizes,” holding his hands just a few inches away and letting the audience figure out the rest.
Chabria:I'm not sure how much more could be inferred. To me, that off-color joke was in keeping with Harris's campaign, as it brought lightheartedness and laughter to something serious.
The Obamas brought not only fire, but hope. Michelle Obama said Harris was “a tribute to her mother, to my mother, and to your mother, too.”
Michelle, in particular, spent much of her time reminding us that the Trumps of the world are the exception, not the rule, and that most of us “can’t change the rules, so we always win.”
He also warned against criticizing the good because it isn’t perfect — something Democrats have long been prone to — and avoiding a “Goldilocks complex about whether everything is good or not.”
We saw that same duality in Barack Obama's speech.
BarabacIt was almost as if the former president had handed over… two Speeches.
There was a section where he harshly criticized Trump. Then there were long passages recalling that momentous speech at the 2004 Democratic convention that fueled his meteoric rise by appealing to voters' better nature.
“Our politics have become so rancorous and corrosive,” Obama said, with each side trying to outspeak the other that many Americans have tuned out, letting the extremes drive a deeper wedge in the country.
Obama called for more kindness and grace, saying that “as much as any policy or program” what many long for is a country where people and politicians “work together and help each other.”
It was bold, to use an old Obama phrase, to follow up his scathing attacks on Trump with such a request. But, as the former president suggested, the decision to be made in November is to move away from the politics of anger, division and hatred.
And then there was the second gentleman, as he is formally known, Doug Emhoff.
Chabria: Emhoff is a weapon of tenderness and light, like a “My Little Pony” who proves that friendship is magic. Don’t underestimate this guy for being dumb. He knows exactly what he’s doing.
She's been tasked with making Harris a likable and relatable person, and she did just that last night with a speech that ranged from her first blind date to Harris' dedication and love as a stepmother.
“Your empathy is your strength,” he told the crowd.
Doug makes me understand Harris' choice of Tim Walz as her running mate. They both share a total comfort with powerful women and both are comfortable in their own skin.
Emhoff is the molecular opposite of JD Vance, the Republican vice presidential candidate. I fear that if you put them in the same room it would be like a particle and its antiparticle colliding.
Barabbas: There was something endearing about the carefree way Emhoff spoke and the way he seemed to treat his big speech almost as a joke. He was sincere and relatable in a way few political figures are.
“You know that laugh,” he said of his wife’s big laugh, which critics have tried to weaponize. He seemed genuinely bemused. “I love that laugh!”
Emhoff may be playing an unconventional role, as the country's first second gentleman, but he handled his assigned task Tuesday night — humanizing his more famous and powerful wife — like a pro.
