LOS ANGELES.–Speaking to the Democrat National Committee convention in Chicago March 20, former First Lady Michelle Obama and former President Barack Obama gave the real story about a Kamala Harris presidency. Showing off their prodigious speech making skills, the Obamas answered many question about what kind of presidency Kamala would have, using the Oval Office to advance what the Obama’s couldn’t finish in eight years. Barack and his Vice President Joe Biden had a hot-and-cold relationship, with Obama proceeding largely independently, keeping Joe at bay for most of the eight years. Obama got elected in 2008 largely because of his electrifying 20024 nominating speech for former Democrat Party nominee John Kerry. Obama convinced the public that the young, vigorous Black man was moderate, bipartisan Democrat who reached across the aisle.
Barack quickly infuriated Republicans pushing his Obamacare plan to expand the Medicaid program to make government funded health insurance available to all Americans. Republicans fought it tooth and nail but in the end Obama got his signature legislation, Affordable Care Act, signed into law March 23, 2010, starting the most rancorous time in American politics since the Civil War. Whatever the pros-and-cons of Obamacare, it diverted attention away from important domestic and foreign policy challenges. Obama wanted to reform the criminal justice system to make in more equitable for African Americans but got bogged down in reckless, wasteful foreign policy decisions, especially the proxy war against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Vice President Joe Biden was all in, most likely pushed Obama into another multibillion dollar boondoggle.
No question that when Russian President Vladimir Putin intervened to save al-Assad, it foiled Obama and Biden’s proxy war that killed over 500,000 Syrians, driving 15 million into exile and almost breaking up the European Union. Obama and Biden’s Syrian proxy war caused so much immigration havoc in Europe it drove the U.K. to exit the European Union AKA Brexut June 23, 2016, the same year 78-year-old former President Donald Trump won the presidency. All of Obama and Biden’s actions caused havoc in international community, destabilized world peace. Yet if you listen to Michelle Obama’s speech she talked about a new excitement in the air with another Black person, like her husband Barack, ascending to the presidency. All the talk about gratitude for former President Joe Biden, 81, was certainly, not in Michelle’s speech, touting the rise of Kamala Harris.
Michelle acted like Kamala was missing from the Biden presidency for the last four years, emerging on the scene like Botticelli’s Venus rising from the clam shell. Michelle talked about Kamala like she’s a fresh face on the political scene to rescue the country. But in Michelle’s world, the country is not about its White majority, it’s only about it’s Black minority [13.5%]. “Something wonderfully magical is in the air, isn’t it?” Michelle Obama asked the United Center DNC audience. “Not just her in this arena . . . but spreading all across this country we love . . . a familiar feeling that been buried too deep for too long,” Michelle said, acting like Kamala hasn’t been part of the Biden administration. So, in Michelle’s mind, it doesn’t count that a mixed-race women like Kamala Harris was vice president, only that she gets now to the top of the ticket.
Michelle couldn’t contain her pro-Black zeal, talking about how Kamala can resuscitate Barack’s signature call for “hope.” “Hope is making a comeback,” Michelle told the cheering audience. But what was Michelle implying that because Kamala was Vice President for four years her presence on the Democrat ticket was not real or taken seriously. Michelle knows that Barack joined former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in pressuring Joe to get out of the 2024 race. For nearly a month, the Democrat Party was in chaos, with Biden insisting he would not step down for any reason. Biden was upended by his abysmal performance in the June 27 CNN presidential debate in Atlanta where Joe looked incoherent debating Trump. That colossal failure in front of 70 million viewers started the avalanche led by Obama and Pelosi to replace Joe with Kamala Harris.
Barack and Michelle accomplished their goal of getting rid of Joe and replacing him with Vice President Kamala Harris. Showing that both their speeches were on the same page, Barack acted like Kamala has not been part of the Biden White House. “America is ready for a new chapter. America is ready for a better story,” Barack said, denouncing in disguised form the Biden presidency. However Obama praised his former Vice President, it all rang insincere, saying it was time for hope to return to American politics. So, to the Obamas “hope” only returns when a Black man or women returns back to the Oval office. What a shameful admission of what went on behind the scenes for force Joe out of the race. Heaping praise on Biden doesn’t cover-up Barack and Michelle personal ambition to return a Black candidate back to the White House to finish the job they started.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
