'Hope is making a comeback.' Obamas storm the national stage: DNC Day 2 takeaways

CHICAGO – Barack and Michelle Obama arrived at the 2024 Democratic convention Tuesday with a message: Yes we Kam!

Speaking to a raucous crowd that hung on every utterance, the Chicago couple brought into focus the values at stake and their belief in how Vice President Kamala Harris is uniquely ready to turn the page and become America's next president.

"I'm feeling hopeful because this convention has always been pretty good to kids with funny names who believe in a country where anything is possible," Barack Obama said, alluding to his line during the 2004 Democratic convention about being a "skinny kid with a funny name."

Democrat's most notable political pair haven't kept it a secret about what they are feeling about the possibility of Republican Donald Trump returning to power.

Barack Obama expressed fear, through surrogates, for instance. Michelle Obama admitted being "terrified" at the prospect, which she alluded to Tuesday. But Harris' candidacy gives the country a chance to "vanquish the demons of fear, division and hate," the former first lady said.

"America, hope is making a comeback," Michelle Obama said.

With President Joe Biden's swan song out of the way, the Obamas capped off a night where Democrats attempted to sketch out Harris' views, her upbringing and her policy goals while sharpening their message on what the fall campaign should be about.

A particular bullseye is being put on Project 2025, the conservative Heritage Foundation's agenda blueprint that progressives have hammered as what will happen if the GOP retakes the White House. Trump has sought to distance himself from the group's platform and turn the conversation back to Harris' views and record.

Much like Monday there was a contrast between the upbeat musical rollcall to nominate Harris inside the United Center and confrontational street protests outside the arena, namely Chicago police arresting half a dozen activists outside the Israeli consulate in a demonstration against the war in Gaza.

'It will be a fight': Obama rips Trump, uplifts Harris

The Obamas are the most popular figures in Democratic politics, and the pair showed why on Tuesday. They shook the United Center from start to finish while tearing into Trump and uplifting Harris' potential presidency.

Barack Obama returned to the stage that two decades ago gave birth to his own historic candidacy as the nation's first Black president. He first talked about his former vice president, Joe Biden, who he described as his brother.

"History will remember Joe Biden as a president who defended democracy at a moment of great danger," he said. "I am proud to call him my president, but even prouder to call him my friend."

The 44th president then moved to the GOP nominee, who he ridiculed for engaging in "childish nicknames and crazy conspiracy theories and (a) weird obsession with crowd size." He described Trump as a leader, "whose act has gotten pretty stale," but also as a "dangerous" person should he return to the White House.

"We don’t need four more years of bluster and chaos," Obama said. "We’ve seen that movie — and we all know that the sequel’s usually worse."

Harris was offered up as the antidote in Obama's roughly 30-minute speech. He said Democrats cannot rest on past accomplishments, including his 2010 healthcare overhaul, but must not demonize Trump's supporters.

 "Our fellow citizens deserve the same grace we hope they’ll extend to us," he said. 

Rather, his party, and the Harris campaign, must show "democracy can actually deliver," adding how the rest of the world is watching to, "see if we can actually pull it off." But voters have a task as well by asking who will fight for them, who is thinking about their and their children's future, he said.

"Kamala will be that president," Obama said.

Michelle Obama says something 'magical is in the air'

Michelle Obama also electrified Democrats in her speech, which made a forceful case for Harris and eviscerated Trump.

“Something wonderfully magical is in the air, isn’t it?” Obama said after taking the stage. “We’re feeling it in this arena but it’s spreading all across this country we love. A familiar feeling that’s been buried too deep for too long." 

Speaking from her hometown of Chicago, she said Democrats feels the “exhilaration of once again being on the cusp of a brighter day” but also warned the party not to get complacent, calling it an “uphill” fight to beat Trump in November.

Michelle Obama told Democrats to “do something” to help Harris win the election, drawing a chant of “do something” from delegates in the room.

“We only have two and a half months, ya’ll, to get this done,” she said.

The speech felt like part two of Michelle Obama’s famous DNC speech in 2016 in which she introduced the line, “When they go low, we go high.”

She said Harris and she both learned the same lessons from their mothers about hard work and sacrifice and loving their neighbor. 

“Kamala Harris is more than ready for this moment,” Obama said. “She is one of the most qualified people ever to seek the office of the presidency. And she is one of the most dignified – a tribute to her mother, to my mother, and probably to your mother, too."

Perhaps most memorably, Michelle Obama tore into Trump – who famously launched his political career by spreading the “birther” conspiracy targeting Barack Obama's citizenship years ago.

Michelle Obama said Harris understands that most Americans “will never be afforded the grace of falling forward.”

“If we bankrupt a business or choke in a crisis, we don’t get a second, third, or fourth chance,” Obama said. “ If things don’t go our way, we don’t have the luxury of whining or cheating others to get further ahead. We don’t get to change the rules so we always win."

"My husband and I sadly know a little something about” the attacks that Trump has leveled on Harris, she said.

“His limited and narrow view of the world made him feel threatened by the existence of two hardworking, highly educated, successful people who also happened to be Black,” Obama said. 

“Who’s going to tell him that the job he’s currently seeking might just be one of those ‘Black jobs?’”