The Obamas called Kamala Harris. Cameras rolled. Hokeyness ensued

Kamala Harris’ dizzying rollout as a presidential candidate somehow pulled off the rare feat of looking organic and organised, fun but without cringe-inducing artifice. Vibes shifted, memes spread, coconuts fell.

Things were bound to get hokey.

Somehow, the Biden-turned-Harris campaign managed to make former President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama, once America’s coolest political couple, sound like parents in a Lifetime movie calling their child at summer camp.

Early Friday morning, the Harris campaign posted a video it produced that depicted a phone call from the Obamas, which had taken place Wednesday, in which they gave Harris their much-awaited endorsement. Barack Obama’s 5:01am post (7pm Friday AEST) of the video on the social platform X had more than 50 million views by 2pm (12am AEST).

The historical weight of the moment — the first Black president offering his support to a daughter of Jamaican and Indian immigrants who is suddenly making her own run at history — may have been somewhat undercut by the stage management. The video begins as an off-screen aide hands Harris a phone, while she is walking backstage at an event in Indianapolis.

(“Kamala Gets A Call” is a go-to move for the vice president: When she and President Joe Biden clinched their victory in 2020, their campaign released a video of her standing outside, on the phone with Biden, saying, “We did it, Joe.“)

Barack Obama’s voice is the first thing heard.

“Kamala?” He sounds excited, with maybe a touch of confusion.

Viewers, too, may be confused, or at least a little distracted. How can we hear the Obamas’ voices so clearly? Harris has a microphone on her lapel, but are the Obamas being heard on her cellphone’s speaker? And why is she holding her phone to her ear?

“Hello?” Harris says, looking at the phone in her hand for a moment, with a broad smile. “Hi!”

“Hey there!” says Michelle Obama, warmly.

Harris: “Aw. Hi! You’re both together! Oh, it’s good to hear you both.”

A blue screen with white text lets us know what’s going on: “The Obamas call Kamala.” Then, we return to Harris, standing by an emergency exit. “I can’t have this phone call without saying to my girl Kamala, I am proud of you,” Michelle Obama says. “This is going to be historic.”

Lauren Hitt, a Harris campaign spokesperson, confirmed that the video captured an actual phone call, and not a voice message, and added, “I hope the significance of the moment is not lost.“)

Finally, Harris is outside in front of a black SUV, and we hear Barack Obama again. “We called to say: Michelle and I couldn’t be prouder to endorse you and to do everything we can to get you through this election and into the Oval Office.”

“My goodness,” Harris says. “Michelle, Barack, this means so much to me.”

Among the video’s millions of viewers were more than a few haters, many of them from the political right, who called it cringeworthy, cheesy or staged. Piers Morgan, the right-leaning British broadcaster, likened it to “full-on Gorgonzola.”

But for Harris and her supporters, more important was the message: The former president, who remains an enormously popular figure, had given her his blessing.

Harris couldn’t have appeared happier. As she told the Obamas: “We’re going to have some fun with this, too, aren’t we?”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.