Obamas Thrill on Day Two of DNC

Ahead of this week’s Democratic National Convention, the United Center temporarily took down banners commemorating the Chicago Bulls’ and Blackhawks’ championships. But on Tuesday night, another Chicago all-star returned to home court.

Before former President Barack Obama would address thousands of Democrats, delegates officially cast their votes making Vice President Kamala Harris the party’s nominee. As the Alan Parson Project’s “Sirius” (the 1990s championship Bulls’ theme song) blared throughout the arena, Gov. J.B. Pritzker, who also delivered prepared remarks later in the evening, stood in the middle of a huddle of delegates. Pritzker wiped the sweat from his brow with a handkerchief, and announced Illinois’ support for Harris.

With Harris’ nomination secured, an electrified crowd welcomed Obama with sustained applause and chants of “Yes, we can!” The former president responded with his own callback to his organizing days.

“I am feeling fired up,” Obama announced. “I am feeling ready to go, even if I am the only person stupid enough to speak after Michelle Obama.”

Still lean and lanky, though grayer now, Obama brought his trademark cadence and comedic timing to the convention hall. While listing Donald Trump’s flaws, he noted the former president’s “weird obsession with crowd sizes” and held his hands a few inches apart. The president smirked, unable to resist the phallic joke. The audience roared.

Former President Barack Obama holds his hands inches apart during his DNC speech. Credit: Michael DiGioia

He trotted out his old hits. Even the more paternalistic quotes like “Don’t boo. Vote!” elicited raucous cheers.

The loudest applause seemed to come from the Illinois delegation, many lauding the return of their hometown hero.

“This is a homecoming for Obama,” said former Illinois state Senator Jacqueline Collins, an Illinois delegate who spoke to the Weekly on the convention floor ahead of the speech. She mentioned the ongoing construction of the Obama Presidential Center and Library in Hyde Park, a community that saw Obama ascend from attorney and academic through the statehouse and Senate to the White House.

(Not everyone from Obama’s old neighborhood is as enthused about the homecoming. Since the center’s location was announced in 2016, the Obama Community Benefits Agreement Coalition has been pushing for protections against gentrification-driven displacement for renters and homeowners in neighboring South Side communities.)

Alderperson Walter Burnett Jr. (27th) said he expected Obama to fire up the crowd with charm. “He’s a much different motivator than [Harris],” he said. “She’s on fire, but Obama is smooth. So I expect Obama to remind us of where we come from and where we are and where we belong.”

Illinois state Senator Robert Peters (D-13th), who serves in Obama’s old statehouse seat, cast his first-ever ballot as a young voter for the former president during his 2004 Senate run. Also a delegate, he noted that Harris’ mixed-race ancestry has exposed her to the same racist attacks Trump levied at Obama throughout his presidency.

State Senate President Don Harmon (D-39th) agreed.

“I said earlier at breakfast that the first Obama election unleashed this hatred in our country that spawned Trump and resulted in the position in which we’re in today,” Harmon told the Weekly. “In many ways, Vice President Harris is a perfect successor to pick up the fight, not only a Black candidate but a woman and an Asian American. It might drive Republicans crazy, but I’m okay with breaking a few more glass ceilings.”

During his speech, Obama took a more candid view.

“This convention has always been good to kids with funny names who believe anything is possible,” he said.

Michelle Obama delivers remarks at the DNC. Credit: Michael DiGioia

While the former president buoyed his speech with his signature charm, he also got a boost from his wife’s remarks. Former First Lady Michelle Obama fired up the crowd with a speech that exchanged the “When they go low, we go high” motto with one-liners eviscerating Trump. When she quipped, “Who’s gonna tell him the job he’s currently seeking might be one of those ‘Black jobs?’” the crowd went wild.

But Michelle Obama also imbued her speech with a sense of mourning, both for her late mother Marian Robinson, who died in June, and for the nation. She noted the last time she visited Chicago was to memorialize Robinson, a South Side native who attended Englewood High School.

“America, hope is making a comeback,” she said to uproarious applause. “But, to be honest, I am realizing that until recently, I have mourned the dimming of that hope. And maybe you’ve experienced the same feelings—it’s that deep pit in my stomach, a palpable sense of dread about the future. And for me, that mourning has also been mixed with my own personal grief.”

It was her mother’s memory that compelled Michelle Obama to speak to the DNC that night, she added. She also connected her middle-class upbringing to Harris’ own.

“We will never benefit from the affirmative action of generational wealth,” she said. “If we bankrupt the business or choke in a crisis, we don’t get a second, third, or fourth chance…. If we see a mountain in front of us, we don’t expect there to be an escalator waiting to take us to the top. No. We put our heads down. We get to work. In America, we do something.”

Though convention goers were riding the high of an Obama nostalgia trip, the former president urged the next generation of politicians to look ahead and praised President Joe Biden’s decision to step aside.

“Now, the torch has been passed,” he said. “Now, it is up to all of us to fight for the America we believe in. And make no mistake, it will be a fight. For all the incredible energy we’ve been able to generate over the last few weeks, for all the rallies and the memes, this will still be a tight race in a closely divided country.”

Convention-goers listen to Obama‘s speech on Tuesday. Credit: Michael DiGioia

By the middle of the convention week in Chicago, the specter of 1968 and intraparty divisiveness appeared to have dissipated – at least inside the United Center. Outside, protests over the U.S. support of Israel amid its ongoing bombardment of Gaza, which has killed more than 40,000 people since October 7, and ensuing arrests continued throughout Tuesday. Against that backdrop, the early-aughts optimism of Obama’s first campaign could seem out of touch, which he acknowledged.

“I know these ideas can seem pretty naive right now,” Obama said.

He later summoned the words of another president from Illinois, Abraham Lincoln, who called upon a divided nation to restore the “bonds of affection” that link all Americans on the eve of the Civil War.

“That is what this election is about,” Obama said, exhorting the assembled Democrats to knock doors, make phone calls, and talk to friends and neighbors over the coming months to elect Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.

“And together, we too will build a country that is more secure and more just, more equal, and more free,” Obama said. “So let’s get to work.”

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Leigh Giangreco is a freelance reporter based in Chicago. You can follow her work on Twitter @LeighGiangreco and at leighgiangreco.com.