\n<\/p>\n
\u201cSomething wonderfully magical is in the air, isn\u2019t it?\u201d Michelle Obama<\/strong> said at the start of her speech Tuesday evening at the Democratic National Convention.<\/p>\n That something was a rekindling of the 2008 energy that catapulted her husband Barack<\/strong> to the presidency\u2014a buzz Democrats have sought and failed to recapture in the decade since the Obamas left the White House. \u201cHope is making a comeback,\u201d Michelle declared.<\/p>\n And over the hour that she and Barack spoke to their hometown Chicago crowd, \u201cYes we can<\/a>\u201d also made a comeback. As did \u201cDon\u2019t boo, vote<\/a>.\u201d The Obamas implored Democrats to get out and vote, to believe yet again in the power of community and the DIY spirit underpinning the American experiment. It was all a throwback to a time and place long before Donald Trump<\/strong> descended a golden escalator and blustered and bullied his way into the White House.<\/p>\n However, their speeches were not all 2008-era hope and change. The Obamas took turns personally roasting Trump, with Michelle taking jabs at his penchant for whining<\/a> and racist rhetoric<\/a> and Barack maybe making a penis-size joke<\/a> while mocking Trump\u2019s \u201cweird obsession\u201d with crowd sizes.<\/p>\n Michelle dedicated most of her speech to touting Kamala Harris<\/strong> as hard-working and worthy of the top job. She is \u201cone of the most qualified people ever to seek the office of the presidency,\u201d the former first lady said, \u201cand she is one of the most dignified.\u201d But Obama brought down the house when she trained her focus on Trump, mentioning him by name only once but very precisely tearing into his many business failings, his silver-spoon upbringing, and his racist attacks on her and her family. \u201cFor years, Donald Trump did everything in his power to try to make people fear us,\u201c she said. \u201cHis limited, narrow view of the world made him feel threatened by the existence of two hardworking, highly educated, successful people who happen to be Black.\u201d And then, amid rapturous applause, she delivered another blow: \u201cI want to know, who is going to tell him that the job he currently is seeking might be one of those \u2018Black jobs<\/a>\u2019?\u201d<\/p>\n When Barack took the stage to chants of \u201cYes we can\u201d\u2014two full decades after his fateful debut at the 2004 DNC in Boston, a speech that launched him into the national spotlight\u2014he declared himself \u201cfeeling ready to go, even if I am the only person stupid enough to speak after Michelle Obama.\u201d The former president described Trump as a 78-year-old billionaire standing outside America\u2019s window with a leaf blower. \u201cWe do not need four more years of bluster, and bumbling, and chaos,\u201d he said. \u201cWe have seen that movie before and we all know that the sequel is usually worse.\u201d<\/p>\n Obama made sure to heap praise on President Joe Biden<\/strong>, reflecting upon their eight years in the White House together and their steady friendship. \u201cHistory will remember Joe Biden as an outstanding president who defended democracy at a moment of great danger,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd I am proud to call him my president. But I am even prouder to call him my friend.\u201d<\/p>\n Biden was notably absent from the United Center as Obama lauded his decision to step aside from the 2024 ticket\u2014a move Obama reportedly had a hand in making happen<\/a>. \u201cNow, the torch has been passed,\u201d Obama asserted before pivoting to a \u201cnew chapter,\u201d which he identified as a President Kamala Harris.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n