Obama’s DNC speech reminds us what he and Kamala Harris share — and what they don’t

During the bitterly divided 2004 presidential election, a Senate candidate from Illinois took the stage and urged Americans to think about their common values instead of their differences. Four years later, then-state Sen. Barack Obama spoke at the convention as the party’s presidential nominee. As a candidate who looked like no past party nominee — referring to himself as a “skinny kid with a funny name” — Obama promised hope and change. These promises had a dual nature: to alter the way of doing politics in Washington and return to common values, while also ushering in a new, bold era for a Democratic Party that had long been in the shadow of Reagan-style Republican ideals. The rhetoric inspired voters, but achieving real change proved to be a much more significant challenge.

In his Tuesday address at the Democratic National Convention, the change candidate spoke as a party elder, in a speech that recalled themes from his 2004 address. The former president and former first lady Michelle Obama remain popular, especially among Democrats. And the connection to Vice President Kamala Harris is long-standing, as Obama was a supporter of her candidacies for attorney general and U.S. Senate in California.

A lot has changed since he was president; but the old Obama was still there, talking about national reconciliation and asserting that, “none of us wants to live in a country that’s bitter and divided,” and urging patience with others who don’t share all of our views.

In a 2009 interview, Gwen Ifill referred to Harris as the “female Barack Obama,” describing a new group of Black politicians who chose public service over a more lucrative private sector career. And, of course, Harris served as the vice president to the politician who was once Obama’s vice president, Joe Biden. At the same time, there are some key differences. Harris isn’t the first Black presidential candidate, but she’s the first after the racial backlash of the 2016 election and the Trump presidency, the 2020 George Floyd protests, and the pushback against teaching the nation’s racial history in some states. Harris is also the child of immigrants at a time when immigration is much more polarized and higher on the public agenda than it was when Obama ran in 2008. She’s not the first woman nominee, but she’s the first to run in a post-Dobbs environment. Before becoming Biden’s vice president, she built her national profile on being adversarial toward Trump and his administration. There will be talk of unity and healing at the DNC, but there’s no denying the political climate has become more intense, and the political significance of identity issues has changed. 

Obama’s legacy in the party is complicated. He obviously wanted his presidency to end with the election of his chosen successor, Hillary Clinton. Instead, Donald Trump was elected, along with a Republican-controlled Congress. Scholars of political parties, myself included, have criticized Obama’s party-building efforts and connected them to these political setbacks. His chosen leader of the Democratic National Committee, Debbie Wasserman Schulz, had a tumultuous tenure. Obama didn’t do much to build up parties or progressive networks at the state level, in addition to the losses in Congress at the state level. (Although it wasn’t entirely negative; Obama accomplished some long-standing party goals, including but not limited to the Affordable Care Act and major strides in LGBTQ rights and marriage equality.)

The constraints on Obama’s ability to deliver the change he promised weren’t all about the Democratic coalition, either. His was a new era of partisan rancor, driven in large part by a unified and hostile Republican opposition. Congressional Republicans refused to work with the administration, talked about making him a one-term president, and refused to even consider his 2016 Supreme Court nominee. When the GOP won control of the House in the 2010 midterms — a historic midterm-seat loss for the president’s party — the prospect of meaningful legislation largely evaporated. 

In 2016, the fissure between the Bernie Sanders and Clinton factions was just taking shape, and led to some uncomfortable moments at the national convention. During the Trump years, the party has changed in a few crucial ways. For one, in the 2018 elections and beyond, record numbers of women, people of color, religious minorities and LGBTQ people have won elected office, reflecting Obama’s legacy of historic political firsts. The progressive wing of the party has asserted itself in national politics and policy with the emergence of the “squad” in the House, and significant attention to the presidential bids of Elizabeth Warren and Sanders. 

If Harris wins, it’s far from assured she’ll have Democratic majorities in either house of Congress. But if she does, those majorities will look quite different from how they did in 2009. 

Following Michelle Obama’s fiery speech, Barack Obama praised the patriotism and leadership of Biden in his own address. He illustrated Harris’ vision of a bolder Democratic Party, both by talking about policy (housing, labor rights) and also delivering a scathing takedown of Trump and Trumpism. He offered a telling detail about how the Democratic Party has shifted, at one point noting that Harris, as California AG, pushed him on legal action against predatory mortgage lenders.

While Obama wove these together by suggesting that his — and the Democrats’ — philosophy is one of “mutual responsibility,” the tension between boldness and reconciliation may be even higher now than it was in 2009 or even 2016. Presidents always balance competing imperatives to lead country and party. And after the presidencies of both Trump and Biden, Harris navigates an environment in which both have changed. In 2008, Obama highlighted his policy differences with his opponent, John McCain, and suggested that Republican ideas had failed, capitalizing on the sour public mood at the end of the George W. Bush presidency.

Harris will undoubtedly stress policy differences as well, focusing on Trump’s connections with Project 2025. But it’s hard to imagine Obama calling McCain “weird” as a central line of attack. Obama ran after eight years of a Republican-controlled White House, affording him room to attack and promise reinvention. Harris runs as the sitting vice president, facing a delicate balance between affirming the administration she’s served in while forging her own political identity. But in the changed political environment since 2016, she may prove to be more of a change candidate in the end.