Obamas weaponise their cult-like standing to turbocharge Harris campaign

The Obamas have weaponised their cult-like standing among Democrats to turbocharge the growing momentum of the Kamala Harris campaign and prolong her honeymoon in the polls.

Barack and Michelle Obama both delivered blistering, show-stopping, speeches to the Democratic National Convention, portraying Trump as a dangerous sower of division and hate and Harris as the right person with the right temperament for the nation’s top job.

The deafening welcome they both received confirmed their status as the most popular elder statesmen of their party and their strident endorsement of the 59-year-old Harris is seen as a key to persuading a new generation of young voters and women, in particular, to vote in November.

But Barack Obama’s speech to the Democratic National Convention also had to tread an awkward path. He lavished praise on Joe Biden barely a month after playing a key role in toppling the president from his throne. Obama, who was the kingmaker for Biden in 2020, became the King-slayer of Biden when he, along with other senior Democrat leaders, decided that the 81 year old was incapable of defeating Donald Trump.

It was the correct call but Biden is said to be deeply disappointed with Obama’s backroom role in forcing him to abandon his presidential bid.

Barack Obama’s speech hit all the right notes. Picture: Getty Images via AFP.

But the bloodied knives have been washed clean in Chicago as the Democrats seek to present a united front behind Harris in her contest with Donald Trump.

No-one is smoother when it comes to navigating these sorts of stormy waters than Obama, and his fiery speech hit the right notes praising Biden as a defender of democracy at a time of danger and pitching Harris as ready for the country’s biggest job.

He portrayed Trump colourfully as an agent of division, saying: “We do not need four more years of bluster and bumbling and chaos – we have all seen that movie before and we know the sequel is always worse.”

Obama and Harris have a long and close association going back 20 years when she was the district attorney in San Francisco and he was running for the Senate seat for Illinois. Harris doorknocked for Obama in Iowa 2007 when he was only considered to be an outside chance to win the presidency and Obama has never forgotten the favour. The video call showing Harris receiving the endorsement of the Obamas after Biden quit the race last month was viewed 117 million times, underlining the political reach that the Obamas can still generate.

Barack Obama is expected to play a key role in the campaign, giving speeches in battleground states ahead of the November poll.

Barack Obama arrives onstage after Michelle Obama spoke to the convention. Picture: AFP.

Michelle Obama is expected to play a lesser role, but the speech she gave at the convention was aimed especially at leveraging her influence among women voters, who have been a key target of the Democrats at this convention. Michelle Obama is still seen by many Democrats as the dream presidential candidate who never threw her hat into the ring. As such, she is seen as unsullied by politics and holds enormous sway among progressive women.

Polls are showing strong and growing support among women voters for the Harris-Walz ticket, with a recent CBS News poll showing Harris now leading Trump among women by 56 per cent to 44 per cent.

Women have also led the rush by donors to back the Harris campaign, with women making up 60 per cent of donors in July when the campaign raised $US310 million.

The convention in Chicago has sought to promote this gender advantage by scheduling numerous female speakers in its program and by spotlighting abortion rights, an issue which has hurt Republicans since the Roe v Wade Supreme Court decision in 2022.

Speakers at the convention have included three women, including a victim of incest and another whose own life was in danger during pregnancy, who shared personal stories of the trauma of being turned away from emergency rooms in states with abortion bans.

Almost every speaker at the convention has, at some stage in their speech, raised the issue of abortion rights which Democrats believe will be a key driver for women voters.

Hillary Clinton, who failed in her bid in 2016 to become the first female president, also called on voters, especially women, to propel Harris to become the first woman president, saying” “Together, we’ve put a lot of cracks in the highest, hardest glass ceiling.”

But while the Clintons and especially the Obamas still hold a huge sway among Democrats, their support is not a magic bullet.

Hillary Clinton lost in 2016 after the Obamas gave a similarly stirring speech about her at the DNC that year, so their passionate backing of Harris is no guarantee of victory. But it will help.