Obama also made time in his speech for Harris, with whom he has some things in common (“This convention has always been pretty good for kids with funny names who believe in a country where anything is possible,” he said at the DNC). ). Now Obama has mostly stuck to the biographical data points Harris talks about herself. There were no unexpected personal anecdotes. I was standing behind an old man dressed in white who was cheering enthusiastically into the speakers and occasionally waving a small Jamaican flag. For longer than I’d like to admit, I couldn’t piece together that he was waving the Jamaican flag not just for himself but for Harris as well, so little does he talk about the Jamaican side of his family. Obama, who has written a book about his complicated relationship with his father, said: “I didn’t have a father at home, but I had people around me—my stepfather, my grandparents, teachers, coaches, and most importantly, people who tried to teach me the difference between right and wrong, telling me what it was like to be honest and responsible.” It is my mother who shows me what it means.” But his speech wasn’t focused on personal matters, it was about highlighting the contrast between Trump’s stance (“he’s macho, ‘I’m going to own these people, I’m going to knock them out'”) and Harris (“who knows what real power looks like, who knows?”). set a good example, do the right thing, and leave this country better than you found it”).

Harris came in and gave the same stump speech she’s been giving for the last three months. Some in-the-know listeners left early, perhaps to avoid the Secret Service restriction that delayed exits after Harris left the venue, or perhaps because there was no need to be a campaign reporter to hear this speech sooner.

Photo by Kyodo via AP Images

Two days later at a rally in Kalamazoo, Michigan Michelle ObamaIt’s his turn to take the field with Harris for the first time. Other than her speech at the DNC, Michelle Obama has been less present than her husband this election cycle, continuing his tradition of largely avoiding party politics despite being one of the most powerful Democratic figures. Since the 2018 book “To beSelling over ten million copies, becoming one of the best-selling memoirs of all time,” it has achieved an almost Oprah-like status, especially among women. Retired educator Chris Kurtz, one of several people in the audience wearing T-shirts that read “Kamalazoo” on them, said he had already attended two Kamala Harris rallies this campaign season but seeing Michelle Obama “was an experience.” to do list item. A young man named Matt Jansen told me he drove all the way from Saint Louis, Missouri. Missouri is a red state, and he said it was the Obamas who first influenced him to question his parents’ conservative policies when he was twelve. Then there were the more practical ones: “Every person we can bring in to maybe change a few minds, a few hearts, will help,” a participant named Rubbie Hodge told me.

Wings Event Center, where the event was held, was decorated with banners and flags; This rally was planned to be televised. Obama cut a dazzling figure as she took to the stage in a tortoiseshell-print suit and gold earrings, her hair tied in a long braid down her back. Barack Obama’s speech on Thursday was good but fell within standard parameters. Michelle Obama didn’t hold back, perhaps because she only spoke once at a rally, and her speech in Kalamazoo may go down as one of the most powerful speeches of this entire election.

He began by pointing out to Harris that there is a double standard against Trump, who, in Obama’s words, is asked to “dazzle us at every opportunity”; As for Trump, “we expect nothing: no understanding of politics”, no ability to form a coherent argument, no honesty, no kindness, no morality. In a campaign season in which the issue of police brutality against Black men and the protests that followed the 2020 murder of George Floyd were rarely mentioned, Obama dared to address the issue: “If you were a mother racked by anxiety and your son was the victim of a nightmarish traffic mishap, if there was justice there If you walked and cried, who do you think would watch your back? he asked. But then he took a different direction. Without making any accusations, it evoked the irony that in an election that will potentially elect the first female President, an election where women’s health care and lives are at stake, much of the recent discourse has focused on how to bolster the American male’s ego and what vision of masculinity should prevail in the country.

Obama brought it back to the intimate matter of the body. “I want the men in the arena to support me on this, because there is more at stake than protecting a woman’s choice to give birth,” she said as she began the second part of her speech. She described the female body as “a messy business” and spoke of abnormal smear tests, mammograms, infections and miscarriages; about menstrual problems and menopause; and about inequalities in funding for research on women’s health. He argued that restrictions on abortion have repercussions that go far beyond abortion. “We will see more doctors hesitate or shy away from providing life-saving treatments due to fear of arrest; more medical students rethinking women’s health; More obstetrics and gynecology clinics are closing their doors because there are not enough doctors to meet demand.”

It reminded me of worst-case scenarios, especially for men:

If your wife is shaking and bleeding on the operating room table during a routine labor gone bad, her pressure is dropping as she loses more and more blood, or an unforeseen infection is spreading and her doctors aren’t sure they can take action, you be the one praying it isn’t too late. You will be the one begging someone, anyone, to do something. And in the worst-case scenario, the tragic but very real possibility that you will be the one holding flowers at the funeral. You may be the one having to raise your children alone. Look, these are just some of the ways women die during childbirth, and I don’t want to discourage you, but in many cases there is no warning and things go south very quickly, and when that happens, every second of hesitation or delay can have devastating consequences.

It caught the attention of the arena. She then made a plea to men, “from the core of my being,” to take women’s lives seriously. “Please, please do not hand over our fate to people like Trump, who know nothing about us and who deeply despise us, because voting for him is a vote against us, against our health,” he said. “Let me tell you all, it is truly heartbreaking to think that the men we love might be unaware or indifferent to our situation. It is a sad statement about our value as women in this world. This is both a setback in our quest for equality and a major blow to our country’s position as a world leader in women’s health and gender equality. So, friends, before you cast your vote, ask yourself this question: which side of history do you want to be on?”

This was a big pitch to follow, but unlike the two nights in Georgia, Harris commanded the attention of the room. This time no one was leaving. It was hard to tell what was different; Maybe it was a more intimate venue, maybe it would give one a certain confidence to be endorsed by Beyoncé, as Harris did the night before, or maybe it was after the seriousness of Michelle Obama’s speech. Harris’ arrival gave the crowd a chance to relax again, but Harris appeared more at ease. There were ten days left until the election. “This will be a tough race until the end, so we have a lot of work to do,” he said.