The following is presented as part of The Columbian’s Opinion content, which offers a point of view in order to provoke thought and debate of civic issues. Opinions represent the viewpoint of the author. Unsigned editorials represent the consensus opinion of The Columbian’s editorial board, which operates independently of the news department.
It was that kind of night. The Obama Magic was on prime display.
Warning the country of the kind of attack Kamala Harris can expect, Michelle Obama said: “My husband and I sadly know a little something about this. For years, Donald Trump did everything in his power to try to make people fear us. See, his 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.”
And as the hall erupted, she continued: “I want to know, who’s going to tell him, who’s going to tell him that the job he’s currently seeking might just be one of those ‘Black jobs’?”
In his subsequent speech, Barack Obama continued the theme, comparing Trump to “the neighbor who keeps running his leaf blower outside your window every minute of every day.”
“Here’s a 78-year-old billionaire who has not stopped whining about his problems since he rode down his golden escalator nine years ago. It has been a constant stream of gripes and grievances that’s actually been getting worse now that he’s afraid of losing to Kamala.”
Obama mocked Trump, calling out his “childish nicknames” and his “crazy conspiracy theories” and “this weird obsession with crowd sizes” — at which point he made an unmistakable gesture with his hands relating to another size issue.
They nailed him. And it’s easy when he gets nailed with such finesse and, really, genius to lose sight of the fact that so many people are committed to voting for him. Which they are.
Kamala Harris has just had the best three weeks a politician could dream of, and she’s running neck-and-neck with Donald Trump. There is a sizeable chunk of America that knows exactly who Donald Trump is and is planning to vote for him anyway. Nothing that happened this week is going to change that reality.
Which was, and needs to be, the second theme of this convention. Both Obamas emphasized that this would be a close election as well as a hard-fought one.
As things stand, this election will be decided by the swing voters in the swing states and by who turns out voters in the greatest number. That’s why all the signs Tuesday night said “VOTE.”
The most promising result of the last three weeks has been an explosion of volunteerism — of hundreds of thousands of people signing up to volunteer 90 days to change history. Do you have enough people on the ground in the swing states to ensure you contact every person who is at least leaning to Harris and stay in contact to make sure you get that person to the polls on Election Day? Doing that effectively takes an army of volunteers. Harris just might have them.
The Obama Magic may not convince Trumpers to abandon ship — they’ll tell you that they’ve heard it all before — but it adds their energy to fuel the momentum that has become this campaign.
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