20 years after the famous … Obama wants to deliver a message of hope

Obama rallied Democrats with a call for hope and unity. Two decades later, America is more divided than ever, but on Tuesday the first black president will campaign in his hometown for the party's nominee, Kamala Harris, to become the first woman and first woman of color to be elected to the White House.

“The president will speak again in person about what it means to be president at this moment and what he is prepared to do, and that it is now all hands on deck and we all need to get involved,” Valerie Jarrett, a former senior adviser to Obama, said Tuesday at an event at Axios House in Chicago.

“One of the lessons we should have learned is that it's not enough to elect a president. You also have to stay engaged throughout the term. Sometimes you elect a president and say, 'OK, I'm done and I'm going back to my job.'”

Michelle Obama, the former First Lady who is so popular that some Democrats have suggested her as an alternative to Joe Biden, will also give a speech on Tuesday evening.

Jarrett, executive director of the Obama Foundation, added: “Our democracy has been threatened and attacked, and it's up to us to be active and engaged citizens to get us back on track. I think that's part of the message you're going to hear from both of them tonight. So get involved or stay square.”

In July 2004, Obama gave a 16-minute speech describing the presidential election, praising candidate John Kerry and telling of his background as the son of a black man from Kenya and a white woman from Kansas. He told delegates, “Let's be honest, my presence on this stage is pretty unlikely.”

Obama did not delve further into policy issues, but his sweeping indictment of divisive politics struck a nerve. “There is no liberal America and no conservative America – there is the United States of America,” he said. “There is no black America and no white America and no Latino America and no Asian America – there is the United States of America. Are we engaging in a politics of cynicism or a politics of hope?”

Joel Rubin, a Democratic strategist, recalled: “It was such a wonderful moment. It was an inspiring moment. It was like a moment where I felt really patriotic and proud to be part of a political party that was trying to bring the country back together. It spoke to the power of our country as a united people.”

Two and a half years later, Obama picked up this motto again when he launched his presidential campaign in front of thousands of supporters outside Springfield, the capital of the state of Illinois. His campaign slogan was “Hope and Change.”

But the flip side of hope was fear, a feeling that Republican Donald Trump exploited to win the White House in 2016. After eight toxic years, young Obama's dream of a truly united nation seems more unattainable than ever.

Rubin, a former deputy secretary of state in the Obama administration, added: “He diagnosed the current problem in America. A speech cannot heal a country. It is part of a process.”

“You elect politicians who are committed to that vision. Unfortunately, we fell behind in 2016 because Donald Trump represented the opposite vision, destroying rather than healing, magnifying differences rather than creating unity. But the message for today's Democratic convention is similar to Obama's message of unity and moving forward.”

Since leaving the White House, Obama has delivered powerful speeches as a surrogate for Hillary Clinton and Biden during their presidential campaigns. On Tuesday, Obama will set the stage for another historic nominee and, according to one adviser, “make a strong case that Harris is the right leader right now.”

Civil rights activist and Reverend Al Sharpton, who also spoke at the 2004 convention, said, “The historic significance of this convention is something we are all aware of, especially those of us who grew up in the civil rights movement. Last night we felt the clear thread that runs from Fannie Lou Hamer in 1964, Shirley Chisholm in 1972, the Reverend Jesse Jackson in the 1980s, and Barack Obama in 2008.

“I think that will be felt just as much when Obama takes the stage here in his hometown. I keep thinking about my presidential candidacy in 2004, when I met him briefly before we spoke. It was clear that night that he struck the tone of the nation – a tone that still resonates with many of us 20 years later.”

Obama will also honor the legacy of Joe Biden, who served as Obama's vice president for eight years. Biden will not be in the hall to watch his former running mate's speech, as he left Chicago after his own speech.

According to media reports, Biden is still annoyed by the role Obama played – along with party leaders Nancy Pelosi, Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer – in preventing the 81-year-old from running for re-election due to concerns about his mental capacity.

Schumer, the Democratic Senate majority leader, said at a CNN-Politico Grill event on Monday: “I'm not going to divulge my private conversations with the former president. That's for him to decide. But we had a number of serious conversations.”