Former US president Barack Obama on Tuesday told fellow Democrats in Chicago that “the torch has been passed” to US Vice President Kamala Harris and that the US is ready for her to become president.
Obama, who was greeted with rapturous applause and cheers at the packed arena hosting the party’s nominating convention, said Harris would fight for Americans, and called her November poll rival, former US president Donald Trump, “dangerous.”
“Kamala Harris is ready for the job. This is a person who has spent her life fighting for people who need a voice,” Obama said.
Photo: AFP
Harris is “someone who sees you and hears you and will get up every single day and fight for you,” he said.
“Yes she can,” Obama said of Harris, prompting the boisterous crowd to repeatedly chant the phrase, recalling Obama’s own “Yes we can” campaign slogan.
Before his stardust performance, his wife, Michelle Obama, told convention goers “something magically wonderful is in the air.”
Photo: AFP
“It’s the contagious power of hope,” she said, calling Harris “my girl” and saying that hope — another rallying cry of her husband’s successful 2008 campaign — “is making a comeback.”
His turn amped up the already buoyant mood in Chicago where US President Joe Biden delivered his own emotional speech late on Monday less than a month after ending his re-election bid.
Other featured speakers represented a broad swath of the party — from US Senator Bernie Sanders championing socialist programs to billionaire Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker mocking Trump’s wealth — and business leaders and Republican defectors were given center stage.
With the party united and Harris polling strongly, Democrats are making clear they believe they can defeat Trump.
Comparisons are already being made by Democratic faithful to Obama’s historic 2008 campaign, where a tidal wave of enthusiasm carried him to the White House.
Bullish delegates symbolically nominated Harris as their candidate in a boisterous roll call, following a paper exercise to confirm her as their standard bearer earlier this month.
“Thank you ... see you in two days, Chicago,” she said to delegates via video link from her event in Milwaukee.
Harris, who was received rapturously in the US’ third-largest city at her debut appearance before Biden spoke, traveled to Milwaukee on Tuesday for an event at the basketball arena where Trump attended the Republican National Convention just a month earlier.
The choice of the 18,000-seat arena is likely to rile Trump, who has been rattled that 59-year-old Harris, unlike Biden, is able to draw the kinds of crowds the Republican has long attracted to his events.
Additional reporting by AP
The Ministry of the Interior (MOI) is to tighten rules for candidates running for public office, requiring them to declare that they do not hold a Chinese household registration or passport, and that they possess no other foreign citizenship. The requirement was set out in a draft amendment to the Enforcement Rules of the Public Officials Election and Recall Act (公職人員選舉罷免法 ) released by the ministry on Thursday. Under the proposal, candidates would need to make the declaration when submitting their registration forms, which would be published in the official election bulletin. The move follows the removal of several elected officials who were
The Republic of China (ROC) is celebrating its 114th Double Ten National Day today, featuring military parades and a variety of performances and speeches in front of the Presidential Office in Taipei. The Taiwan Taiko Association opened the celebrations with a 100-drummer performance, including young percussionists. As per tradition, an air force Mirage 2000 fighter jet flew over the Presidential Office as a part of the performance. The Honor Guards of the ROC and its marching band also heralded in a military parade. Students from Taichung's Shin Min High School then followed with a colorful performance using floral imagery to represent Taiwan's alternate name
COVETED PRIZE: The US president would be a peace prize laureate should he persuade Xi Jinping to abandon military aggression against Taiwan, William Lai said US President Donald Trump should get the Nobel Peace Prize should he be able to convince Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to abandon the use of force against Taiwan, President William Lai (賴清德) told a conservative US radio show and podcast in an interview. The US is Taiwan’s most important international backer, despite the absence of formal ties, but since Trump took office earlier this year he has not announced any new arms sales to the nation. Trump could meet Xi at the APEC summit in South Korea on Oct. 31 and Nov. 1. Lai, speaking on The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton
A Chinese takeover of Taiwan would severely threaten the national security of the US, Japan, the Philippines and other nations, while global economic losses could reach US$10 trillion, National Security Council Deputy Secretary-General Lin Fei-fan (林飛帆) wrote in an article published yesterday in Foreign Affairs. “The future of Taiwan is not merely a regional concern; it is a test of whether the international order can withstand the pressure of authoritarian expansionism,” Lin wrote in the article titled “Taiwan’s Plan for Peace Through Strength — How Investments in Resilience Can Deter Beijing.” Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) intent to take Taiwan by force
RSS