In what was clearly a meticulously planned exhortation from one of the presidency’s most acclaimed speechwriters, former President Barack Obama – after spending the last 3.5 years “respecting the precedent” of not attacking his successor by name (though he did leave a breadcrumb trail of not-so-oblique aspersions denouncing Trump as corrupt) – laid into Trump Wednesday night during Night 3 of the Democratic National Convention Prime-Time Programming Slot.
Obama assailed his successor as “unfit” for the office he holds, and a direct threat to the country and its founding principles, while also repudiating Trump’s supporters as Americans who truly don’t care about preserving American Democratic principles.
While Obama never expected Trump to share his views or preserve his policies, Obama said he had hoped Trump would find “some reverence” for the office he holds. But over the last four years, Trump has shown “no interest in putting in the work,” done nothing to find common ground with his detractors, or use “the awesome power of his office to help anyone but himself and his friends.”
He has “no interest in treating the presidency as anything but one more reality show that he can use to get the attention he craves,” Obama added. “Donald Trump hasn’t grown into the job, because he can’t. And the consequences of that are severe.”
On the other hand, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris “actually care about every American, and they care deeply about this democracy,” Obama said, bolstering the reputation and offering his personal seal of approval to his former Veep, about whom he harbored “grave concerns” until only recently.
Of course, Obama is fighting for more than simply making sure “my friend Joe Biden” gets a crack at running the country. He’s fighting for the restoration, and preservation, of his legacy. For both Obama and Biden, the election is a chance to reverse Trump’s decision to dismantle dozens of policies on immigration, climate change and healthcare enacted during the Obama Administration.
“For eight years, Joe was the last one in the room whenever I faced a big decision. He made me a better president – and he’s got the character and the experience to make us a better country,” Obama continued as he heaped praise on Biden.
And just in case Obama’s words weren’t enough to get the point across, the speech was filmed in Philadelphia, and delivered from the Museum of the American Revolution in the city where the US Constitution was written, and still features many monuments to American Democracy.
Of course Obama wasn’t last night’s only speaker, and “Night Three” included several other highlights, from Kamala Harris accepting the nomination to Hillary Clinton wishing “Donald Trump knew how to be president” (unlike Clinton, who knows better than anybody else in the country, remember?)
Harris declared in her speech, as she formally accepted the VP nomination (becoming the third woman, and first black woman, to headline or co-headline a presidential ticket for a major American party), that American is “crying out for leadership.”
Bonus: Listening to Harris talk about how “the civil rights struggle is nothing new to Joe…and it’s why he got in to public service” after stopping just short of calling him a racist during the debates.
Former Secretary of State and 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton offered a reflection on the “morning after” the 2016 election, and insisted that “if he had put his own ego and inhumanity aside” Democrats would have worked with Trump (despite the fact that Democratic leaders embraced a policy of broad-based obstruction from the very beginning).
Clinton insisted that “I wish Donald Trump knew how to be a president because America needs a president right now.”
Of course, Obama is fighting for more than simply making sure “my friend Joe Biden” gets a crack at running the country. He’s fighting for the restoration, and preservation, of his legacy. For both Obama and Biden, the election is a chance to reverse Trump’s decision to dismantle dozens of policies on immigration, climate change and healthcare enacted during the Obama Administration.
“For eight years, Joe was the last one in the room whenever I faced a big decision. He made me a better president – and he’s got the character and the experience to make us a better country,” Obama continued as he heaped praise on Biden.
And just in case Obama’s words weren’t enough to get the point across, the speech was filmed in Philadelphia, and delivered from the Museum of the American Revolution in the city where the US Constitution was written, and still features many monuments to American Democracy.
Of course Obama wasn’t last night’s only speaker, and “Night Three” included several other highlights, from Kamala Harris accepting the nomination to Hillary Clinton wishing “Donald Trump knew how to be president” (unlike Clinton, who knows better than anybody else in the country, remember?)
Harris declared in her speech, as she formally accepted the VP nomination (becoming the third woman, and first black woman, to headline or co-headline a presidential ticket for a major American party), that American is “crying out for leadership.”
Bonus: Listening to Harris talk about how “the civil rights struggle is nothing new to Joe…and it’s why he got in to public service” after stopping just short of calling him a racist during the debates.
Former Secretary of State and 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton offered a reflection on the “morning after” the 2016 election, and insisted that “if he had put his own ego and inhumanity aside” Democrats would have worked with Trump (despite the fact that Democratic leaders embraced a policy of broad-based obstruction from the very beginning).
Clinton insisted that “I wish Donald Trump knew how to be a president because America needs a president right now.”
Finally, singer Billie Eilish (who literally just turned 18) prefaced her performance of her new single “My Future” by urging viewers to vote against Trump, and for presumptive nominee and former Vice President Joe Biden. “Silence is not an option, we can not sit this one out. We all have to vote like our lives and the world depend on it.”
Spoken with all the wisdom, and hormone driven certainty, of a fabulously wealthy teenager, right before obviously lipsynching during a live TV performance.