Atmosphere reminiscent of 2008: Last night in Chicago the former US president Barack Obama and the Michelle Obama confirmed their status as stars of the Democratic Party with speeches at the National Convention calling on Americans to support the Kamala Harristhe party’s candidate in the November 5 presidential election, against Donald Trump.

The US’s first African-American president, Barack Obama, is using his considerable political capital to support Harris, who is also seeking to make history by becoming the country’s first female, first black and first Asian president.

“We don’t need four more years of bullshit, incompetence and chaos. We’ve seen the play before and we all know that the sequel is usually worse,” Barack Obama said.

“Yes, she can,” he added, adapting the slogan of his first election campaign in 2008, “Yes, we can.”

“America is ready for a new chapter. America is ready for a better story. We are ready for President Kamala Harris,” he added.

Obama also attacked Trump, the Republican who succeeded him in the White House in 2017, and praised President Joe Biden, who was also his vice president.

“History will remember him Joe Biden as a president who defended democracy at a time of high risk. I’m proud to call him my president, but even more proud to call him a friend,” Obama said, as the crowd responded by chanting, “We love Joe.”

Barack Obama was introduced on stage by his wife Michelle, whom most Democrats want to see as president of the United States.

“America, hope is coming back,” Michelle Obama underscored, another reference to her husband’s 2008 campaign.

She warned that Trump will try to misrepresent Harris’s truth, just as he did “everything he could to make people fear us (including the Obamas).”

“His limited and narrow-minded view of the world caused him to be threatened by two hard-working, highly educated, successful people who also happened to be black,” Michelle pointed out to warm applause from the audience.

“Who’s to tell him that the job he’s looking to take might be one of those ‘black jobs’?” he added. In his election campaign, Trump has stated that illegal immigrants crossing the US border are “stealing” “black jobs”.

Both the billionaire himself, members of the Republican party and his supporters as well as internet trolls attack Harris with racist and sexist comments. The attacks have intensified since the US vice president began her election campaign when Biden dropped out of the presidential race.

“It’s the same old trick,” Michelle Obama commented. “They are promoting malicious, misogynistic, racist lies as a substitute for real ideas and solutions that will actually make people’s lives better.”

Obama also compared the energy prevailing in favor of Harris at the Democratic National Convention, but also throughout the country, with that prevailing in 2008, during her husband’s first election campaign.

“There is something wonderful, magical in the atmosphere,” he declared. “A familiar feeling that was buried too deep for too long. The contagious power of hope”, he assessed.

“Hope is returning,” he stressed.

In his 2008 election campaign, Barack Obama used the slogan “hope”.

But Michelle Obama warned that Harris has a long and difficult battle ahead of her and called on Democratic supporters to organize and mobilize other voters.

“Regardless of how we feel today or tomorrow or the next day it’s going to be an uphill battle (…) so we can’t be our own worst enemies,” he explained.

Before Biden withdrew from the race for the US presidency a Reuters/Ipsos poll had shown that only Michelle Obama could beat Trump in the presidential election, garnering 50% of the vote intention compared to 39% for the Republican.

However, she has repeatedly stated that she does not intend to run for office.