The Obamas' DNC Speeches Were Deception, Hypocrisy And Fear-Mongering At Their Finest | Bobby Burack

Barack and Michelle Obama received rave reviews for their speeches Tuesday night at the 2024 Democratic National Convention. Of course, they did.

"Michelle Obama Absolutely Takes Apart Donald Trump," read a New York Times headline Wednesday morning. 

"Former President Barack and First Lady Michelle Obama gave the best political speeches in [the] history of our country," former NBA star Magic Johnson wrote on X.

"Michelle Obama’s DNC Speech Was a Reclamation and Proclamation of Black Womanhood," Time declared.

You can find headlines of similar tone and purpose all over the internet. No two people in Washington are worshiped more than the Obamas are. But the narratives about their speeches are dishonest, telling half-truths and only parts of the story.

Michelle opened her speech by uttering the phrase "hope" and calling for "change." America could certainly use both. Americans are approaching record levels of unhappiness. A Gallup poll found that America is only the 23rd happiest country on the globe.

However, Democrats have controlled the White House for 12 of the past 16 years. Michelle's husband was the president for eight of those years. Democrats have had time to stir change and inspire hope. 

They haven't. Rather, the gap between the ruling class and the working class has widened substantially. 

Michelle Obama used the word "we" throughout her speech, referring to black women like her and Kamala. The line "We will never benefit from the affirmative action of generational wealth" garnered the most attention.

"[Kamala' understands that most of us will never be afforded the grace of failing forward," Michelle told delegates. "If things don’t go our way, we don’t have the luxury of whining or cheating others to get further ahead."

As a practical matter, no modern day politician in Washington has benefited more from "failing forward" than Kamala Harris has.

Harris had to bow out of the 2020 Democratic primaries before Iowa. Her support was that minimal. Biden selected her as his running mate in response to internal pressure to pick a black woman. The oligarchs of the party then installed Harris as the Democrat nominee without the input of voters.

Harris did not earn her position on the ballot. When she last tried, she failed.

Later in the speech, Michelle spoke to working Americans. She cited how her parents ingrained modesty in her at a young age. 

"[My mother] and my father did not aspire to be wealthy. In fact, they were suspicious of folks who took more than they needed. They understood that it wasn’t enough for their kids to thrive if everyone else around us was drowning."

We give her speechwriters credit: Michelle's barbs are catchy and worded effectively. Except for the hypocrisy. Michelle and Barack have three homes worth over $10 million each in Martha’s Vineyard, Hawaii, and Washington DC.

Michelle Obama is awfully fortunate for someone who has never worked for anything and expresses an obvious disdain for America.

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Barack Obama echoed several of the same talking points as his wife to close the night. The former president remains an impressively talented speaker with his baritone voice and signature cadence. 

That said, a stark contrast remains between watching the aura of Obama while he speaks and reading a transcript of what he actually says.

"America’s ready for a new chapter. America’s ready for a better story. We are ready for a President Kamala Harris," opened Obama. "Kamala Harris is ready for the job. This is a person who has spent her life fighting on behalf of people who need a voice and a champion. As you heard from Michelle, Kamala was not born into privilege. She had to work for what she’s got."

Well, that is simply not true. 

Harris did not work for what she has, as in the Democrat nominee. She was given the position. Furthermore, she was not born into the slums. Her father was a Stanford professor and mother was a biomedical scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. 

The life of Kamala Harris isn't the rags-to-riches story we are led to believe.

Obama then praised Harris and the Democrat Party for their tolerance of their opposition. "It’s the way we treat each other, including those who don’t look like us or pray like us or see the world exactly like we do."

Yet, in the very next line, Obama bemoaned the non-Democrat voter.

"The other side knows it’s easier to play on people’s fears and cynicism. It always has been. They will tell you that government is inherently corrupt, that sacrifice and generosity are for suckers, and since the game is rigged, it’s okay to take what you want and just look after your own. That’s the easy path."

Nothing like unifying the nation than demeaning half of voters as the "other side."

Speaking of division, Harris was the number two in charge of an administration with a heavy emphasis on DEI – an excuse to elevate and diminish people solely based on their skin color – and entirely dismissing Trump voters as racist, co-conspirators, and unworthy.

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And in the most insulting line of the night, Obama pretended he admires Joe Biden.

"It’s been 16 years since I had the honor of accepting this party’s nomination for President. And I know that’s hard to believe, because I have not aged a bit. But it’s true. And looking back, I can say, without question, that my first big decision as your nominee turned out to be one of my best. And that was asking Joe Biden to serve by my side as Vice President. We became brothers."

That is such a lie. All of it. 

Obama thought so little of Biden near the end of his second term that he put his support fully behind Hillary Clinton, blocking Biden's ability to run a successful primary campaign. He and Nancy Pelosi were also the two main figures in the coup to force Biden to drop out of the race, despite his wishes to remain.

Barack Obama doesn't see Joe Biden as a "brother." He never has. He sees him as a useful idiot who overstayed his welcome.

But if voters are vulnerable enough to fall for the repackaging of Kamala Harris, perhaps they will fall for Obama's faux empathy for Biden and the needy. And that's exactly the hope of the legacy press by framing the Obamas’ speeches as en fuego.

They were not.  

Their speeches were full of deception, hypocrisy, and fear-mongering – much like most of Kamala Harris' campaign. Harris is running a manipulation campaign as much as a presidential campaign. 

Notice what Barack and Michelle Obama mostly avoided on stage: policy. 

Propping up Harris and demonizing Trump may draw a rabid response from those in attendance. However, elections are still won on policy.

 Biden, the almighty Obamas, and Kamala don't want to talk policy.