For the better part of a decade, Democrats have longed for Barack Obama to return. Why can’t he do something? Say something? Why can’t Obama save America from the depravity of Donald Trump or the decline of Joe Biden?
On Tuesday night, Obama returned. The comeback was as good as any Democrat could have hoped for—better, even. It just so happened that the Obama savior came in the form of Michelle, rather than Barack. When Barack said he was “stupid” to have followed her on the program, he wasn’t kidding.
Barack Obama’s speech at the Democratic National Convention on Tuesday was fine. In a catalog of rapturous Obama oratory, it was the kind of speech that could be enjoyed in the moment and never really thought about again.
With a head full of gray hair and the manner of an amused professor, Obama played some familiar notes. There was a patented catchphrase: “Do not boo. Vote.” A slightly moldy pop culture reference: “Bend the knee.” There was one very good joke, delivered with just the right amount of faux-sheepishness, in which Obama started by talking about Trump’s obsession with crowd size and ended up talking about Trump’s manhood.
For the Democrats in the hall, Obama is a visitor from the past who represents a lot of things. After elections headlined by Biden and Hillary Clinton, he’s the last Democratic presidential candidate to maintain full oratorical superiority over his opponent. Obama is the last Democrat to win a resounding victory in the Electoral College. Though it seemed close at the time, Obama won the 2012 race over Mitt Romney by 126 electoral votes.
Obama is a portal to something else—something bigger than politics. Before he spoke, I went to the floor to see an Indiana delegate named Seth Rawlings. Rawlings is the mustachioed field director for the House Democratic Caucus in Indiana. “I’m 23,” he told me. “Gen Z pretty squarely.” On Tuesday, Rawlings came to the United Center wearing a sports coat, a light green button that said “demobrat,” and Nike Air Maxes with Indiana Pacers colors.
“Loved watching Steve Kerr,” said Rawlings. “Should have played [Tyrese] Haliburton in the Olympics.”
Rawlings is a child of the Obama Era. His first political memory is watching Obama’s 2009 inauguration with his second-grade class. “As Democrats, we’re always striving to find whoever the next Obama is,” he said. “That’s exactly what we’re doing, all the time.”
In his mind, what Obama did other than beat Republicans and pass legislation was help Democrats capture the culture. Obama was a portal to celebrity and a tastemaker of the art form that is (I guess) called Obamacore.
Rawlings said he’s happy about how the Harris-led Democratic Party was starting to regain its footing. “We are capturing a cultural victory at every level,” he said. “Common is an opening act at the DNC. Their headliner is Kid Rock.” And Spike Lee, Lil Jon, and Eva Longoria were part of Tuesday’s DNC roll call.
“If we win the culture,” Rawlings continued, “we can then go into the fights on issues. I think we win the issues.”
Michelle Obama’s speech evoked what she called a “familiar feeling” from the party’s happiest modern period. It was an amazing speech because the former first lady did so many things at the same time.
She cast Harris as her husband’s political heir in just the way Rawlings said. Obama underlined Harris’s middle-class childhood and made it seem tangible and familiar: “Her story is your story.” Obama’s speech was an old-fashioned GOTV speech, too. Sounding like she was leading a field office in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, or Eau Claire, Wisconsin, she commanded the people in the hall to “do something.”
Like Clinton on Monday night, Michelle Obama relished the chance to lay into Trump for past slights. Trump, she said, felt “threatened by the existence of two hard-working, highly educated, successful people who happened to be Black.”
“Wait,” she said, as the crowd cheered the line. Obama was in command of the crowd as soon as she walked onstage. She continued: “Who’s going to tell him that the job he’s currently seeking might just be one of those ‘Black jobs?’” The crowd roared again. It’s the best line, inside the best speech, of the convention so far.
Doug Emhoff, the second gentleman of the United States, came onstage before the Obamas with a flat-handed wave. From my seat in the upper deck, that wave looked familiar. On Monday morning, I’d seen it when Emhoff came to the United Center for his rehearsal.
Mornings are wonderful times to visit the convention floor. There are no rules to restrict a reporter’s movements. You can grab one of the seats reserved for the California delegation and sit right next to the stage. On Monday, the room was pretty empty except for CBS’s Ed O’Keefe, who was sitting in the front row, and another man farther back, who was painting a picture of the stage.
Suddenly, the New Radicals song “You Get What You Give” started playing over the speakers. Emhoff bounded onto the stage in a sports coat and untucked shirt. His movements had the disco-dancing dad vibe that New York Senator Chuck Schumer would show the world the next night. Emhoff pretended to receive love from an imaginary crowd.
Emhoff’s speech at the convention contained a sweet story about leaving a rambling message on Harris’s voicemail before their first date. Emhoff helped reintroduce Harris to voters and painted a picture of their blended family. (Emhoff’s ex-wife, Kerstin, came to the convention and even produced the video narrated by their son.)
On Monday, to give Emhoff a chance to practice, someone had loaded the preamble to the Constitution into the prompter. “To secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity,” said Emhoff. Then he declared, “OK, I get it.” A man wearing headphones and a hat gave Emhoff some notes. Emhoff acted like he was doing a mic drop. He exited the stage between two American flags.
A few minutes later, Emhoff bounded back onto the stage. His movements were less goofy this time: more Obama, less Schumer. He exited between the flags.
There were United Center sound checks this week from luminaries like James Taylor and Patti LaBelle. So the handful of us in the convention hall kept our seats as Emhoff bounded back onto the stage for a third rehearsal. He accepted a few more notes at the podium from the man in the hat. This time, he gave the imaginary crowd a little more love as he exited, patting his heart and using that flat-handed wave.
It’s not a revelation that political conventions are tightly scripted. But know this: Every bit of goofy dancing has been approved by a higher authority. Somewhere, Nancy Pelosi was probably glancing at a monitor and saying, “Yes, that will do nicely.”