When Barack Obama was given speaking time at the Democratic National Convention in Boston in 2004, few people knew who he was. US senators are generally best known in the state they are elected from. Obama was also only senator in the state congress in Illinois, where this year’s convention city of Chicago is located. But Obama made a speech in Boston, and the party discovered a talent. Even then, many asked if the young politician was the man who could become America’s first colored president. He first became a senator in Congress. So after a long and hard nomination battle against fellow senator and former first lady Hillary Clinton, he became the Democrats’ presidential candidate in 2008. The election would have ended in history anyway: the first African-American presidential candidate or the first female presidential candidate from one of the two major parties in the United States. And in November of the same year, the man with a white mother and black father was elected America’s first colored president. On November 4, 2008, the United States had its first colored president and first family: Barack and Michelle Obama together with their daughters Malia and Sasha. Photo: JOE RAEDLE / AFP Millions of Americans saw hope and change, the enthusiasm was carried forward by the slogans “Yes, we can” and “Change”. Tonight, he is expected to bring up the old slogan again. The last glass ceiling? The Democratic Party is again hoping to shatter a glass ceiling in American society. Hillary Clinton has come close to doing so. She ended up as secretary of state for Obama, while foreign affairs veteran Joe Biden became vice president. Barack Obama and Joe Biden ended up as a couple for eight years, after being elected presidential candidate and vice presidential candidate during the Democratic National Convention in 2008. Photo: JIM YOUNG / Reuters When Clinton eight years later, with strong support from Obama, tried to write more history on behalf of the party and become the country’s first female president, it went wrong. Businessman and Republican Donald Trump won. Donald Trump had to endure a lot of criticism for his behavior towards Hillary Clinton during the presidential election campaign in 2016. Many believed that he had never behaved like that towards a male competitor. Photo: PAUL J. RICHARDS / AFP When veteran Joe Biden won against Trump in November 2020, he was able to fulfill his election promise to break yet another barrier for American women. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris were chosen as “Person of the Year” in 2020 by Time magazine. Photo: JASON SEILER / AFP And Kamala Harris, who was a senator from California, made history. She became the first female vice president and the first colored vice president. After Biden chose to hand over the baton in the election campaign to Harris, the Democrats’ hopes of taking the last step towards the glass ceiling are alive. Now it is Kamala Harris who will try to become America’s first female president. Photo: KEVIN DIETSCH / AFP Must retain Obama and Biden voters Harris is currently riding a wave of enthusiasm similar to the one Obama created in 2008. With a mother from India and father from Jamaica, who came to the country as immigrants, and with a Jewish white husband , Harris mirrors the diverse nation that is the United States. According to the polls, she has won over young people, people of color and women, who largely contributed to electing Obama in 2008. And although the greatest enthusiasm was gone during the re-election of the then president in 2012, enough people voted to make it last another victory. The then Attorney General of California, Kamala Harris speaks at the Democratic National Convention in 2012, where Barack Obama will be re-elected as presidential candidate. Photo: STAN HONDA / AFP Biden had the same groups behind him, in addition to winning back a large proportion of the white working-class voters who defected to Clinton. The centrist Biden also received the support of moderate Republicans who could not stand Trump any longer. Harris will have to be able to unite this coalition of voters if she is to “break the roof” in November. Hillary Clinton, who came close to becoming America’s first female president in 2016, spoke warmly of Kamala Harris at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Photo: Mike Blake / Reuters Hillary Clinton, who spoke to the national meeting yesterday, has no doubt that Harris will manage what she herself was unable to do. – Together we create cracks in the highest, hardest glass ceiling. On the other side of that glass ceiling, Kamala Harris is being sworn in as the 47th President of the United States. When a barrier is broken by one of us, it opens for all of us, Clinton said. Published 20.08.2024, at 23.06 Updated 20.08.2024, at 23.19
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Barack Obama believes in “Yes, we can” for Kamala Harris – news Urix – Foreign news and documentaries
