President Obama and former first lady, Michelle Obama, emerged last night from their political retirements to serve as surrogates for an enthusiastic movement they say reminds them of the hope and change campaign the 44th president launched nearly two decades ago.

Billed as the headliners, the Obamas traveled to their native Chicago to argue that Vice President Harris is an extension of that same liberal vision they fought for alongside President Biden in 2008. Mrs. Obama, who spoke just before her husband, said the energy and enthusiasm she has seen just in the last four weeks reminded her of that campaign 16 years ago. 

“The contagious power of hope,” she said, would help buoy Democrats’ chances in November. She warned against apathy, however, saying that she has felt a “dimming of that hope” in the past eight years, and that Democrats should be wary to do anything less than their all in the remaining 11 weeks of the 2024 campaign. 

Mr. Obama took the stage with a smile from ear-to-ear. “I’m feeling fired up!” the former president said. “I’m feeling ready to go!”

The former president said that Ms. Harris “had to work for what she’s got” and that she “actually cares” about everyday Americans. She is the remedy America needs after a decade of politics dominated by President Trump. 

He took the time not only to tout Ms. Harris’s ascendence as the presidential nominee in just one short month, but to knock his successor as a tired old man bent on using division and chaos as a governing strategy. 

“We do not need four more years of bluster and bumbling and chaos — We have seen that movie before and we all know that the sequel is usually worse,” Mr. Obama said. “America’s ready for a new chapter! We are ready for a new story! We are ready for a President Kamala Harris!”

The former president has been a coveted surrogate ever since his approval rating shot up during the final year of his presidency, and has stayed relatively high over the course of eight years. 

While his rally sizes in 2008 and beyond have long been the envy of Democrats, Ms. Harris and Governor Walz have seemingly caught his famous base-level excitement, packing arenas from Philadelphia to Phoenix to Eau Claire, Wisconsin. Last night, as the Democratic convention was filled to the brim in Chicago’s United Center, Ms. Harris and her running mate had a packed house less than 100 miles north at Milwaukee’s Fiserv Forum — the same arena where the Republicans held their convention just last month. 

Both Mr. and Mrs. Obama addressed the 2020 Democratic National Convention, though that event was entirely virtual and they spoke straight to camera. Mr. Obama was then a key surrogate for President Biden, filling parking lots with voters watching from their cars in states like Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. He did some events for Democrats in 2022, including Senator Fetterman, Governor Shapiro, and Senator Warnock. 

It wasn’t just the Obamas who came to the stage to tout the record of the Biden–Harris administration. Senator Sanders, too, made the progressive case for Ms. Harris. He spoke about projections for American employees, a cap on insulin prices for seniors, and Ms. Harris’s support for a swift end to the Israel-Hamas war. 

“We have accomplished more than any government since FDR! But much more remains to be done,” the Vermonter told attendees to raucous applause. “We must summon the courage to stand up to wealth and power.”

On the other end of a spectrum, the Republican mayor of Mesa, Arizona, John Giles, who has been in office for a decade, was at the convention last night to say Ms. Harris was going to be the “adult” in the White House that America needs. “John McCain’s Republican Party is gone, and we don’t owe a damn thing to what’s been left behind,” he said.