Cast From The Past: When Barack Obama's 2004 DNC speech propelled him to White House in 2008

Ten years after Hollywood Director Frank Darabont's The Shawshank Redemption (1994) redefined the meaning of 'hope' for the world — "hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies" — a 43-year-old Barack Obama turned up to sell the 'politics of hope' at 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston while endorsing John Kerry on the presidential ticket that year.

Barack Obama endorsed John Kerry for president in 2004 | AFP

Until then, the third-term senator from Illinois was little known outside his pocket borough. The Philadephia Daily News notoriously headlined on the morning of Obama's keynote address: 'Who the Heck Is This Guy?'

Before 2004, the first and the last time that Obama attended a DNC was in 2000. Fresh off his loss in the Democratic primary for the Illinois First Congressional District seat, he was "more or less broke". When he landed in Los Angeles to attend the DNC, his American Express card had been maxed out, Obama mentioned in his autobiography 'The Audacity of Hope'.

When he finally got to the convention hall, he could not get a floor pass and had to watch on the TV screens around Boston's FleetCenter.

Obama recalls the episode in 'The Audacity of Hope': "Given the distance between my previous role as a convention gate-crasher and my newfound role as convention keynoter, I had some cause to worry that my appearance in Boston might not go very well."

Flashing his signature smile amid sounds of the 1964 civil rights anthem 'Keep On Pushing', Obama took the DNC center stage shortly after 9 PM on July 27, 2004. Obama began by stating that his presence on the stage was unlikely that night due to the challenging upbringing his father Barack Obama Sr. had in Kenya.

"My father was a foreign student, born and raised in a small village in Kenya. He grew up herding goats, went to school in a tin-roof shack. His father, my grandfather, was a cook, a domestic servant," Obama said with stiff, methodical hand gestures. 

Democratic National Convention keynote speaker Barack Obama speaks on 27 July 2004, in Boston, Massachusetts | AFP

"But my grandfather had larger dreams for his son," Obama continued. 

"Through hard work and perseverance, my father got a scholarship to study in a magical place: America, which stood as a beacon of freedom and opportunity to so many who had come before."

Minutes later, as Obama began recounting what "hope" means for an ordinary American amid the US invasion of Iraq and war in Afghanistan, his shoulders settled down. His pitch modulated effortlessly as his line of sight navigated between the teleprompter and the thousands in audience at Boston's FleetCenter and millions across the United States watching the 43-year-old senator on their TV sets.

The speech took a life of its own. 

At one breakout point of his DNC address, Obama threw a rhetorical question in the air. "Do we participate in a politics of cynicism, or do we participate in a politics of hope?” he asked the audience. 

The audience roared back: "Hope!"

The cheers turned to ovations. From there on, Obama devised repetition to his advantage. The most repeated word, 'hope'. 

"I'm not talking about blind optimism here - the almost willful ignorance that thinks unemployment will go away if we just don't talk about it, or the health care crisis will solve itself if we just ignore it," he said.

A theatrical but remarkably natural Obama, in his husky and baritone pitch, continued. 

"No, I'm talking about something more substantial. It's the hope of slaves sitting around a fire singing freedom songs; the hope of immigrants setting out for distant shores; the hope of a young naval lieutenant bravely patrolling the Mekong Delta; the hope of a millworker's son who dares to defy the odds; the hope of a skinny kid with a funny name who believes that America has a place for him, too. The audacity of hope," he said, the last phrase — 'the audacity of hope' — came from a sermon once delivered by his pastor.

By the time Obama finished, he had been interrupted by applause 33 times. 

Obama immediately knew that he had struck a chord. The speech captured the attention of ordinary Americans and opened the way for his run for the presidency in 2008. 

When Obama entered the White House in 2008 as the first Black US president, the speech had survived the scrutiny of time. 

On August 20, 2024, as Barack Obama turned to yet another Democratic National Convention in Chicago, his appearance was preceded by a face not as obscure as his was in 2004, when social media was still in its infancy. 

Former US President Barack Obama arrives onstage after his wife and former First Lady Michelle Obama introduced him on the second day of the Democratic National Convention (DNC) at the United Center in Chicago, Illinois, on August 20, 2024 | AFP

The former first lady Michelle Obama remarked in her 20-minute DNC speech that  "hope is making a comeback". 

By no measure did Michelle in Chicago of 2024 pull off what Barack did in Boston of 2004. 

But her keynote address has reignited a question that has been lingering in American political circles for quite some time. 

Did Michelle use her endorsement of Kamala Harris for her own rise to a possible presidential ticket in 2028, just like Barack paved the path for his presidency in 2008 by endorsing John Kerry in 2004? 

Time will tell.