Let's start with the good. And there is a measure of praise to be given to the speeches of Michelle and Barack Obama at the DNC last night. They are both composed orators. The gleaming, even teary looks in the eyes of attendees spoke to how refreshing it was for Democrats to hear a leader complete an entire sentence and enunciate each word--it was downright touching.
The Obama's speeches were polished, if a little tired. "Hope" has done a lot of work over the past 16 years, and it was called upon repeatedly by both Obamas, a song as tired as the one Barack used to walk onto the stage, U2's "City of Blinding Lights".
Oddly missing in the auditorium: the very woman running for office...and the (nominal) President of the United States. As Barack and Michelle carried on about how much they respected and admired Biden, Harris, and Walz, none of the latter group were anywhere to be found. Harris and Walz conveniently scheduled at a rally in Milwaukee, the same venue recently used by Trump.
The last time someone was so conspicuously absent, the Obama's chef had just decided to go paddle boarding.
Biden was licking his wounds as far away as geographically possible in the Lower 48, vacationing in Santa Ynez, CA at the home of a wealthy Democratic donor (don't worry--it's okay when Joe does it, just not Clarence Thomas).
Michelle's speech was crafted in such a way as to draw as many parallels between herself and Kamala as possible, using their working-class mothers as a commonality. A smart move, as Michelle is far more popular with the Dem base than Kamala, but it was a ham-handed sales job.
A line that DNCers loved was, "Who’s going to tell [Trump] that the job he’s currently seeking might just be one of those 'black jobs'?" As political oratory goes, not bad. The problem, as many have pointed out, is that Harris isn't African-American (she's half Indian, half Jamaican).
And yes, as Michelle pointed out, her mother and Harris lived "an ocean apart". The problem is that Michelle's forebears mostly came over on slave ships, whereas Harris' owned slaves.
"Kamala Harris and I built our lives on those same foundational values. Our mothers shared that same belief in the promise of this country," Michelle stated. There's nothing wrong with the line, it's just so tenuous. What does Harris' mother have to do with this election, let alone Michelle's? The only reason Michelle mentioned her late mother was to 1) garner sympathy for her loss, and 2) to build a thematic framework for her speech.
A nice big embrace between Michelle and Kamala would have been good optics for a campaign trying to sell the image of one for the other, but Harris was too busy to be there. Or perhaps it would have reminded America that Michelle is built like a football player, and Kamala like an aging cheerleader.
Barack Obama's speech was familiarly slick, and also relied on tired tropes. He began by lavishing praise on Biden. "I am proud to call him my president, but I am even prouder to call him my friend."
Et tu, Barack?
From there, Obama proceeded to make a hand gesture penis-size joke on the back of a remark about Trump's "obsession" with crowd sizes. Trump's popularity is one of the issues the Dem's can't make disappear, so this is what they resort to.
Interestingly, the gesture/joke came in the same breath as the "conspiracy theories" touted by Trump. It's always a good idea to get a laugh after broaching a sensitive subject, and the theories that Trump espouses keep coming true. The cognitive dissonance of Dems is at a bursting point, so laughter as a salve is a smart idea.
Ultimately, Obama loves to speak of reconciliation and taking the high, principled road while driving the wedge of divisiveness deeper. His complaints of the electorate's polarization are Obama's own ideas made manifest.
So in the end, it was the same old Obama story. Cut hims some slack, though. It must be hard to come up with new material during a third term.
