After twenty years Illinois Senator Barack Obama delivered the keynote address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention — and launched his political career on a path that would lead him to the White House — as the 44th president addressed the convention in support of Vice President Kamala Harris.
Obama began his keynote speech at Chicago's United Center on Tuesday by praising President Joe Biden, before taking a sharp dig at Donald Trump.
“We don’t need four more years of bluster and chaos,” Obama said of Trump. “We’ve seen this movie before, and we all know that the sequels are usually worse. America is ready for a new chapter and a better story. We are ready for President Kamala Harris.”
“Our job is to convince people that democracy actually works, and to do that, we cannot just point to what we have already achieved. We cannot rely solely on the ideas of the past. We need to chart a new way forward to meet today’s challenges, and Kamala understands that,” he added.
Obama's endorsement of Harris comes after a tumultuous six weeks for Democrats, who last month saw Biden step down from his campaign after a disastrous debate performance against Trump.
The former president's role in convincing his former vice president to step down from the campaign and pass the torch to Harris has been a subject of contentious debate. According to a July report from political, Obama was aware of the punitive op-ed written by actor George Clooney before it was published — and did not intervene on Biden’s behalf.
Questions swirl about the state of the Obama-Biden relationship — but you wouldn't know it from the way Obama spoke about his vice president.
“History will remember Joe Biden as an outstanding president who stood up for democracy in a moment of great peril,” Obama said. “I am proud to call him my president, but I am even more proud to call him my friend.”
Obama called Biden one of the “best” decisions he has made as president, and spoke of how he has never wavered from his “compassion, his decency, his hard-earned resilience” or his “unwavering belief that everyone in this country deserves a fair shot.”
Obama not only praised the Democrats currently in the White House, but also attacked Trump.
“He's a 78-year-old billionaire who hasn't stopped complaining about his problems since he got on his golden escalator nine years ago,” Obama said. “It's been a constant stream of complaints and grievances.”
“There are childish nicknames, crazy conspiracy theories, and this weird obsession with crowd sizes,” he added, making a very conspicuous measuring motion with his hands.
“Donald Trump wants us to believe that this country is unbearably divided between us and them. Between real Americans — who of course support him — and outsiders who don’t,” Obama said. “He wants us to believe that we’ll be richer and safer if we give him the power to put these people back in their place. It’s one of the oldest tricks in politics from a man whose behavior is, in fact, largely outdated.”
One of the lessons from last month’s Republican National Convention was the conspicuous absence of speeches by former Republican presidents and party nominees. With Harris poised to accept her party’s nomination, the Democratic National Convention leaned heavily on the party’s star powerhouses—especially those with “president” in their title.
Obama is the second of three current and former U.S. presidents to speak at this year’s Democratic National Convention. President Joe Biden delivered his keynote address on Monday, and former President Bill Clinton will speak at the convention on Wednesday. Jimmy Carter’s grandson spoke on behalf of the 99-year-old former president — who is receiving hospice care — on Tuesday. Several former Democratic candidates are also scheduled to speak at the convention, including Hillary Clinton, who spoke on Monday.
By contrast, no living Republican spoke at this year's Republican National Convention, except for Trump and Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance.
The difference in atmosphere between the Republican National Convention and the Democratic National Convention was noticeable, with the wave of enthusiasm behind Harris's candidacy leading to comparisons to Obama's nominations in 2008 and 2012.
But the former president reminded Democrats that the road to November is still a long one. “It’s going to be a battle,” he said. “And despite all the incredible energy that we’ve been able to generate over the last few weeks, and in all the rallies, this is still going to be a close race in a deeply divided country — a country where far too many Americans are still struggling.”
