In about 10 weeks we will know the result of this bold plan to reboot the era of hope and change. Pictured: Vice President Kamala Harris. Photo Credit: Kamala Harris/X.
At the end of the Democratic Convention on Aug. 22, Matthew Continetti, founding editor of the Washington Free Beacon, member of the American Enterprise Institute, and daily contributor to the Commentary podcast wrote an article entitled “Kamala Harris’ Obama Makeover,” in which he argues that Democrats want to rerun the 2008 election using the Barack Obama playbook. The article’s premise rests on Obama’s wanting Vice President Kamala Harris to be president for a long time. Continetti is not the first to notice the overlap.
Alison Durkee reporting for Forbes, (Obama And Kamala Harris’ Decades-Long Alliance, Explained—Ahead Of Tonight’s DNC Speech), Aug. 20, 2024, pointed out that Obama and Harris have known each other for 20 years and “the one-time president and potential future president have a decades-long history of supporting each other’s political campaigns.”
Durkee’s reporting documents the long association. After meeting in 2004 at a fundraiser for Obama’s senate campaign, Harris campaigned for Obama in Iowa in 2008 when he faced long odds against Hillary Clinton. The late Gwen Ifill of PBS News in 2009 suggested she had a bright future, labelling her the “female Barack Obama.” As president in 2010 Obama endorsed her for Attorney-General in California, calling Harris, “a dear, dear friend of mine, so I want everybody to do right by her.” In 2012 Harris spoke at the Democratic National Convention (DNC) in support of President Obama’s re-election. In 2013 Obama had to apologize (did he?) for calling Harris the “best-looking attorney general in the country.” Since then, he has endorsed her senate candidacy in California in 2016, given her advice in 2019 about her 2020 campaign for the Democratic nomination and gotten behind her elevation to the top of the ticket in 2024. Many might say that this presents nothing more than intramural politics. Continetti provides more evidence.
Former first lady Michelle Obama’s speech included the following lines: “Something wonderfully magical is in the air, isn’t it? You know, we’re feeling it here in this arena, but it’s spreading across this country we love. A familiar feeling that has been buried too deep for far too long. You know what I’m talking about. It’s the contagious power of hope.” The theme of hope and change, as Continetti suggested, reflects the 2008 campaign of Obama. More followed when Bill and Hillary Clinton, and other notables, emphasized the challenges before America: “They painted a picture of a bleak and divided country where personal rights are threatened and working families have trouble making ends meet. A country desperate for new leadership. A country like America in the autumn of 2008.”
Continetti had more. How about Stevie Wonder showing up to sing as he did in 2008? And the surprise appearance of Oprah Winfrey who insisted, “We won’t go back.” Winfrey told the adoring hometown crowd: “We won’t be sent back, pushed back, bullied back, kicked back. We’re not going back.” The way Democrats portrayed the nation you would think Trump still held power. Continetti again, “More was said about him (Trump) than any issue or policy. The Democrats charged Trump with insurrection, bigotry, misogyny, lawlessness, and cruelty. And that was just night one…He was blamed for all problems facing the country — the economy and inflation, the border and immigration, the uncertainty of abortion law.”
President Joe Biden took over the presidency in 2021, but once shuffled off the stage on Monday night, it was as if he had never held office. Obama never wanted Biden to be president. He honoured him at the end of his term with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. The purpose was to cap Biden’s career. Obama had already told him he could not run in 2016; it was Hilary’s turn. Harris was to pick up the torch in 2020, but her campaign floundered after early promise, sinking under the weight of Harris’ inability to articulate policy or display authenticity.
Facing a Senator Bernie Sanders candidacy, Obama flirted with Pete Buttigieg but eventually settled on an aging Biden, who was to serve one term. “This was the convention Democrats wanted to hold in 2020. Barack Obama helped to select the past three Democratic presidential nominees despite leaving office eight years ago. He never wanted Biden to lead his party. He pushed Biden aside in 2016 for Hillary Clinton. Oops. Clinton lost and Trump took power. And Obama cast about for a non-Biden alternative. He’s known Harris for years and boosted her 2020 campaign,” Continetti asserts.
It was no accident Harris returned to the fore of politics when Biden selected her as his running mate. He promised to pick a black woman to complete the ticket and as a candidate, he affirmed he would choose a black woman if granted a Supreme Court nomination. Unpopular decisions, progressive policies, excessive government spending, and immigration woes have characterized Biden’s presidency. His approval rating has hovered around 40 percent since the disastrous exit from Afghanistan. Once Obama, Pelosi, and Schumer secured Biden’s withdrawal the Obama team swooped in to reassert control and Harris happily welcomed them to her team.
Summing up the political beheading of Biden, Continetti comments, “Harris took on more than Obama’s staff. She adopted the message that Obama strategist David Axelrod had been urging Biden to use for months: Drop the threat-to-democracy talk and instead cast the election as a choice between future promise and dwelling on Trump’s past; concern for every American, not concern for Trump’s interest; and lowering costs versus Trump’s tariffs. Harris has followed the plan, while appropriating old-guard Republican buzzwords such as freedom, opportunity, and optimism.”
The Democrats in Chicago loved the change of theme. They fear returning to Trump but want to retreat to 2008 and the Obama era. Reading the crowd, Continetti heard Democrats yearn for “when the coalition of the ascendant and the Rising American Electorate was going to overthrow the patriarchy and white supremacy and guarantee progressive rule for generations.” In closing, Continetti drives home two points. The first one emphasized the reality of a close race and that issues matter. “The convention had nothing to say to young men…Nor did the convention have much to say to working-class voters in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania concerned about the lower standard of living during the Biden administration, the broken southern border, the sense of public disorder in cities and on college campuses, and a world in chaos.” Otherwise, the message coming out of Chicago relied on loathing Trump and rejoicing that Biden had been defenestrated.
Secondly, Continetti reminded us, “Kamala Harris is not Barack Obama. She didn’t risk her career over a stand against the Iraq war, only to see her party move toward her. She is not known for a groundbreaking speech, a worldwide bestseller, or rallying a movement to win a sharply contested primary against a two-term senator and former first lady. She didn’t win a primary at all. She has no defined set of policies — no Obamacare waiting in the wings.”
Will America fall for a replay of 2008? History may be a series of rhymes echoing through the past and into the future, but whether Harris can be sold as an Obama knockoff seems like a steep demand. Memory-holing the current president of the United States and convincing voters she bears no responsibility for the past four years, a tough sell. The effort to restore former president Donald Trump as the incumbent after decrying his stolen election charges for four years is oddly audacious. In about 10 weeks we will know the result of this bold plan to reboot the era of hope and change.
Dave Redekop is a retired elementary resource teacher who now works part-time at the St. Catharines Courthouse as a Registrar. He has worked on political campaigns since high school and attended university in South Carolina for five years, where he earned a Master’s in American History with a specialization in Civil Rights. Dave loves reading biographies.
