The Democratic National Convention taking place in Chicago has riveted America nationwide as speaker after speaker address the energetic crowd and millions of Americans watch the event live across the country.
President Joe Biden wrapped up the convention’s opening night by beginning his long political farewell with an address that both framed his own legacy and signaled he is ceding control of the party to Vice President Kamala Harris.
Biden ticked through many of his administration’s achievements, including a major public works package and climate program, and shared the credit with Harris. He said picking Harris as his running mate was the best decision he ever made and promised to be the “best volunteer” that Harris and running mate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz have ever seen.
His closing message to those still listening as the convention stretched late into the night: “I gave my best to you for 50 years.”
Harris ascended the stage and told Biden, “Thank you for your historic leadership, for your lifetime of service to our nation, and for all you’ll continue to do.”
Former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton was greeted with wild and sustained applause that lasted for more than two minutes before she quieted the crowd. She delivered a fiery speech hoping that Harris could do what she could not –- become the first woman president by beating Trump.
Former President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle electrified the crowd on Tuesday, delivering back-to-back speeches that eviscerated Donald Trump and urged Americans to reject the Republican nominee once and for all.
The former first lady, in one of the most memorable speeches in convention history, called on Democrats to drop the “Goldilocks complex” and work hard to elect Harris.
“We cannot indulge our anxieties about whether this country will elect someone like Kamala, instead of doing everything we can to get someone like Kamala elected,” she said.
The former president said that the “vast majority of us do not want to live in a country that’s bitter and divided.”
“We do not need four more years of bluster and bumbling and chaos. We have seen that movie before, and we all know that the sequel is usually worse,” Obama said.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Harris’ running mate, formally accepted the vice-presidential nomination during his keynote address Wednesday at the Democratic National Convention.
“It’s the honor of my life to accept your nomination for vice president of the United States,” he said. “When we Democrats talk about freedom, we mean the freedom to make a better life for yourself and the people you love. Freedom to make your own health care decisions. And yeah, your kids’ freedom to go to school without worrying about being shot dead in the hall.”
Former President Bill Clinton said the election is a choice between Harris being “for the people” or Trump being “about me, myself and I.” Clinton used his speech to cast Trump as self-obsessed and Harris as a clean break from the drama that encompasses the former president. Trump “mostly talks about himself,” Clinton said. “So the next time you hear him, don’t count the lies. Count the I’s,” he said. “His vendettas, his vengeance, his complaints, his conspiracies.”
Jon Polin and Rachel Goldberg-Polin, the parents of Israeli-American hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin, shared their “anguish and misery” in one of the night’s most poignant moments. The two said they were “deeply grateful” to Biden and Harris, who they’ve met “numerous times” at the White House.
Behind the scenes of unity at the DNC, discussions center around the main policies that drive the party.
Harris has gone back on a multitude of progressive positions she took in 2020, including support for a fracking ban, single-payer health care, an assault weapons buy-back program and Supreme Court expansion.
The Democratic platform codifies those shifts to the center and then some, removing references to universal health care from the 2020 platform while adding hawkish language on border security.
Aside from the platform, there is also the issue of Harris herself.
It wasn’t long ago that people were not overly enthused with the idea of Harris running at the top of the Democratic ticket.
Amid all the pomp and circumstance at the convention, very few people thought she could actually do well. Harris’ unsteady performance as vice president raised doubts about her capacity to ascend to the top job.
But as she spends time in the spotlight, she is proving to the American people that she has the tools for the job and can fill the role of president with the type of leadership the country so badly wants.
As America seemingly drifts towards more progressive values, it will take a resolute leader to lead the country into a new era with even greater values and vision.
If the Democrats are correct, that person today is Kamala Harris.