The Obamas Shot Their Shots...And We Got Penis Jokes And Racebaiting

The Obamas Shot Their Shots...And We Got Penis Jokes And Racebaiting - The Manhattan

The Obama speeches at the DNC were polished, if a bit thematically exhausted, but relied…

The Manhattan

Let’s start with the good. And there is a measure of praise to be given to the speeches of Michelle and Barack Obama at the DNC last night. They are both composed orators. The gleaming, even teary looks in the eyes of attendees spoke to how refreshing it was for Democrats to hear a leader complete an entire sentence and enunciate each word–it was downright touching.

*_{“The words…I can understand the words!” (YouTube screencap).}*

The Obama’s speeches were polished, if a little tired. “Hope” has done a lot of work over the past 16 years, and it was called upon repeatedly by both Obamas, a song as tired as the one Barack used to walk onto the stage, U2’s “City of Blinding Lights”.

Oddly missing in the auditorium: the very woman running for office…and the (nominal) President of the United States. As Barack and Michelle carried on about how much they respected and admired Biden, Harris, and Walz, none of the latter group were anywhere to be found. Harris and Walz conveniently scheduled at a rally in Milwaukee, the same venue recently used by Trump.

The last time someone was so conspicuously absent, the Obama’s chef had just decided to go paddle boarding.

Biden was licking his wounds as far away as geographically possible in the Lower 48, vacationing in Santa Ynez, CA at the home of a wealthy Democratic donor (don’t worry–it’s okay when Joe does it, just not Clarence Thomas).

Michelle: Kamala Is Basically Me, I Swear!

Michelle’s speech was crafted in such a way as to draw as many parallels between herself and Kamala as possible, using their working-class mothers as a commonality. A smart move, as Michelle is far more popular with the Dem base than Kamala, but it was a ham-handed sales job.

A line that DNCers loved was, “Who’s going to tell [Trump] that the job he’s currently seeking might just be one of those ‘black jobs’?” As political oratory goes, not bad. The problem, as many have pointed out, is that Harris isn’t African-American (she’s half Indian, half Jamaican).

And yes, as Michelle pointed out, her mother and Harris lived “an ocean apart”. The problem is that Michelle’s forebears mostly came over on slave ships, whereas Harris’ owned slaves…