Wooley: Roars of hope and joy for Kamala as ghost Joe fades away
Democratic National Convention shares love for Harris while Trump keeps rambling on when time is short, writes Charles Wooley
Opinion
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I’ve been to Chicago many times as a reporter. I love the city with its amazing variety of towering skyscraper architecture. While down at the perpetually shadowed street level you will discover what are quite simply the best Italian restaurants in America. If I have time at the end of this column I will point you in the direction of one of my favourites.
This week I was back in Chicago without even leaving home. Courtesy of CNN and MSNBC I had a ringside seat at the Democratic National Convention in the United Centre. The huge indoor arena is the home of the legendary Chicago Bulls basketball team. I was able to join 21 million Americans who were also not there, watching it just like me, on the couch.
The United Centre has a 21,000-seat sports capacity with a few thousand more for concerts. And sensibly it’s not on the waterfront. It is set a few kilometres west of the vast Lake Michigan. It has massive parking lots and is connected to impressive public transport. I don’t know what sort of junkets our stadium planners were indulged with but a trip to Chicago would have been instructive.
But for now, in our tiny cash-strapped state it all increasingly looks like a crazy delusion.
When the UC was built during the 1990s recession, Chicago then with a 3 million population had trouble raising the mere $175m required.
The stadium is famous for “The Roar”. It was acoustically designed to amplify the sound of the crowd. Fortunately, the UC owns 19ha of land and there are no close neighbours.
But what a roar it was.
I could hear it above the crash of the waves on faraway Carlton Beach.
“America is ready for a new chapter, we are ready for president Kamala Harris and Kamala Harris is ready for the job,” former president Barack Obama told 20,000 cheering Democrats. He was speaking after his wife Michelle had already electrified the stadium with: “Something wonderfully magical is in the air, isn’t it? A familiar feeling that’s been buried too deep for too long.”
She was of course hearkening back to Barack Obama’s first presidential campaign in 2008 when the Democrats played up the notions of “hope and change”.
It reprised well this week.
“You know what I’m talking about? It’s the contagious power of hope!” she exclaimed. “America, hope is making a comeback.”
Of course, the uneasy ghost at this noisy political banquet was the shade of poor old Joe Biden.
The brutal implication was that the nation had lost hope under the hopeless and bumbling Biden and that Harris has now found the hope that Joe somehow misplaced.
The other awkward reality was that Kamala Harris was the Vice President during Biden’s misplacement of hope. Was it all his own work or must the VP share at least a tiny modicum of responsibility?
Out on the campaign trail Trump was actually trying to make that point but he was rhetorically all over the place. In Milwaukee he spoke for so long that people with babysitters at home were quietly leaving the rally.
Trump couldn’t help himself. His advisers were saying, “It’s the economy, stupid” – but he wouldn’t be advised. Off he went in another direction.
“Joe Biden hates her, okay? Hates her. You don’t mind if I go off teleprompter for a second, do you? Joe Biden hates her,” and then he rambled further afield, “This was an overthrow of a president. This was an overthrow. They went out, and I spent $100m fighting Joe Biden.”
And it’s a fair point. Biden’s withdrawal has left Donald Trump wrestling with a ghost.
He is now wasting his time when time is short.
But he is not entirely without self-knowledge. He almost caught himself heading off in one too many wrong directions.
“They’ll say, ‘He was rambling’. But I don’t ramble. I’m a really smart guy, you know, really smart. I don’t ramble,” he rambled.
Chicago is the hometown of American television royalty, Oprah Winfrey.
Her majesty made a surprise appearance at the DNC.
She told Americans to “chose common sense over nonsense”.
Oprah is still one of Middle America’s most influential opinion makers and the Democrats couldn’t buy this kind of endorsement.
It is bestowed from on high.
“Let us choose truth, let us choose joy,” Ms Winfrey told the roaring crowd.
“Because that is the best of America.”
Bill Clinton came in with the same message.
“We need Kamala Harris, the president of joy.”
While the blindsided Trump was still out there on the campaign trail playing the grouchy scowling old man with the same old line. “I call her ‘laughing Kamala’. Have you seen her laugh? She’s crazy.”
It’s almost as if he doesn’t care if he loses the election because he will not accept the verdict.
Perhaps in some dark corner of the stadium, beyond the acoustically designed amplified roar of the faithful, the thin ghostly voice of the dearly departed Joe Biden might still be heard whispering his famously accurate summation of Trump.
“You can’t love your country, only when you win.”
But as promised, let’s end with a word of joy.
If you happen to travel to the ‘windy city’ don’t miss La Scarola Italian Restaurant at 721 West Grand Avenue.
Try the Pasta Sinatra named for ‘Ol’ blue eyes’ who always ordered the best seafood dish I can remember eating anywhere. Scallops, mussels, shrimps and penne pasta.
The same confounding technology that allowed me to spend this week in Chicago allows you to find the recipe on La Scarola’s website.
Finally, as you have guessed, Donald Trump is not a patient man. He prefers fast food and reportedly his favourite dish is bacon and eggs from McDonald’s.
I can’t tell you exactly how he likes it but I’m guessing he orders his eggs ‘rambled’.
Charles Wooley is a Tasmanian-based journalist
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