(Chicago) The moment was historic. It was also emotional for Democrats. Only one other Democratic candidate in modern history to give up reelection, Lyndon B. Johnson, gave up his seat after one term. But “LBJ” didn’t show up at the 1968 Democratic convention in Chicago. He went to his ranch instead.
Joe Biden, for his part, came to bid farewell to an audience that chanted its love for him. His speech resembled the one he would have delivered on Thursday, if he had been the candidate of his party, as expected. With his great successes, a defense of his mandate, an assessment of his commitment. Everything or almost everything was taken from his speeches of the last three months.
PHOTO CRAIG HUDSON, REUTERS
US President Joe Biden
Except the end: “Kamala and Tim, I will be the best volunteer for your campaign.” And, at the very end: “America, I did my best for you!” Adding that on this day in August 2024, he is “more optimistic than when I was elected senator at 29.”
But the speech of the evening was that of Hillary Clinton, who made the Blackhawks’ arena tremble.
The speech of her life, perhaps. She made some memorable ones during the 2016 campaign.
But eight years later, in embracing the woman who might in her place become the first female president of the United States, against the same candidate, the symbolic charge was immense.
She spoke about her mother, who was born in Chicago at a time when women had not yet won the right to vote.
She spoke of Febb E. Burn, the widow who wrote to her son in the Tennessee legislature telling him to be a “good boy” and vote for the 19th.e amendment to the Constitution, granting women the right to vote. Tennessee was the 36the State to adopt the amendment, which allowed it to be enshrined in the Constitution in 1920.
She talked about Shirley Chisholm, the first black woman elected to Congress in 1968. Then the first woman to try to be the Democratic presidential candidate in 1972.
She spoke about the moment she took her daughter Chelsea to hear Geraldine Ferraro, the first woman to run for vice president of the United States, in 1984.
This historical thread that goes from the suffragettes to Kamala Harris, it was she who stretched it the strongest, in 2016, when she faced Donald Trump. She won the popular vote by 2.9 million votes nationally, but obtained fewer votes in the key states, and thus lost the presidency.
The crowd of delegates at the United Center was electrified by this speech. Words alone do not make great speeches. It takes the moment. The opportunity. And in that moment, this woman who had lost, despite her competence, despite her experience, despite her majority, was passing the torch to the next one.
And: “In 2016, nearly 66 million Americans voted to shatter the last glass ceiling. I see the cracks in that ceiling. And through those cracks, I see the freedom to make our own decisions, to choose our loves, our lives, our health, our families.”
In 2008, when Clinton first ran, Harris was one of the first to side with her rival Obama. But the two women quickly became allies after the fact. And on the day Biden resigned, the Clintons were the first to send the signal to join forces.
While carefully staying out of the debate over Biden’s departure, she made it clear that in such a case, there was only one alternative: Kamala Harris. This seems obvious today, but a great many Democrats preferred other candidates. Hillary Clinton threw all her weight behind her.
The evening was centered around Biden’s farewell speech, but the real theme of the evening was women’s political power. Reproductive rights, abortion were highlighted. Jill and Ashley Biden introduced Joe.
“Something is happening in this country,” Clinton said. “We are writing a new chapter. I wish my mother and Kamala’s mother were here tonight.”
The history of this country, and mine too, teaches us that progress is possible, but it is not guaranteed.
Hillary Clinton
Coming from the woman who nearly became president of the United States, who overcame bitterness in the face of a notoriously sexist candidate, that call to engagement resonated with an instantaneous historical force it had never had before.
“You could say we’re all standing on Hillary’s shoulders,” comedian Tony Goldwyn, the host, said afterwards.
On the shoulders of a long line of women, who would not believe their eyes.