Oprah, football, freedom: Highlights from the DNC
It was a night of former presidents and would-be presidents, and the primetime debut of Gov. Tim Walz, who was cheered by members of the high school football team he once coached.
Still, Day 3 of the Democratic National Convention on Wednesday night proved that celebrity still matters in politics and beyond. Here are some highlights:
‘DEPLORABLES’ OUT, ‘NEIGHBORS’ IN
Throughout the night, Democrats channeled their inner Ned Flanders, the “Simpsons” character known as the most neighborly neighbor in Springfield.
Speaker after speaker stressed that, even as they thrashed former President Donald Trump inside the convention hall, they did not view his followers as their enemies.
“That family down the road — they may not think like you do, they may not pray like you do, they may not love like you do, but they are your neighbors,” Walz said in his speech accepting the Democrats’ vice presidential nomination. “You look out for them, and they look out for you.”
It was in the final weeks of the election eight years ago when Hillary Clinton described Trump’s supporters as falling into a “basket of deplorables,” people who were “racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic and Islamophobic.” It became a rallying cry for Trump’s followers, and her party clearly learned a lesson from it.
PASSING THE TORCH
Bill Clinton, his voice softer, his hair thinner, played the part of chief baton passer.
More than 30 years after he rocked his own convention stage as the face of the future, he portrayed himself as a charter member of Generation Old, ready to be led by Harris, who is just one year shy of being of Generation X.
“Lord, I’m getting old,” he said at one point. “But here’s what I want you to know — if you vote for this
team, if you can get them elected and let them bring in this breath of fresh air, you will be proud of it for the rest of your life.”
And he sought to drag Trump with him to the political retirement home. Noting that he had just turned 78, Clinton said, “The only personal vanity I want to assert is that I’m still younger than Donald Trump.”
OPRAH STILL A STAR
The 2004 convention speech given by Barack Obama, when he was a state senator from Illinois, set him on a path to the presidency, and it is the electrifying moment many ambitious Democrats seek to match.
But it was Winfrey, whose surprise appearance convention organizers managed to keep secret, who came the closest.
In a purple pantsuit, she struck singsong notes of inspiration and thundering beats of defiance, belting out the Harris campaign’s new “Freedom” message as if she was giving everyone in the audience a car.
“And let us choose the sweet promise of tomorrow
over the bitter return to yesterday,” she said in a climax that sent the audience to its feet like no one else had. “We won’t be sent back, pushed back, kicked back, we are not going back.”
WALZ EMBRACES HIS SUBORDINATE ROLE
Walz proved why Harris chose him. He kept it short, and, even as he introduced himself to millions of Americans for the first time, heeded the cardinal rule of vice presidential protocol: never upstage the boss.
His speech ran for a crisp 16 minutes, about half the length of Clinton’s typical expansive address. He knew his role, and was sure to praise the woman who had plucked him from semi-obscurity and brought him to the biggest stage in global politics.
“No matter who you are, Kamala Harris is going to stand up and fight for your freedom to live the life that you want to lead because that’s what we want for ourselves,” he said. “Kamala Harris is tough. Kamala Harris is experienced. And Kamala Harris is ready.”