US President Barack Obama gestures before speaking
during his farewell address in Chicago, Illinois on January 10, 2017.
Barack Obama closes the book on his presidency, with a farewell speech
in Chicago that will try to lift supporters shaken by Donald Trump's
shock election.
President Barack Obama addressed America and the world for the final
time as president Tuesday, in a speech that was both a tearful goodbye
and a call to arms.
Capping his eight years in the White House, Obama returned to his
adoptive hometown of Chicago to recast his “yes we can” campaign credo
as “yes we did.”
Listing landmarks of his presidency — from the Iran nuclear deal to
reforming healthcare — much of the speech was dedicated to lifting up
supporters shaken by Donald Trump’s shock election.
Obama called on them to pick up the torch, fight for democracy and forge a new “social compact”.
“For all our outward differences, we are all in this together,” he
said warning that partisanship, racism, and inequality all threatened
democracy. “We rise or fall as one.”
“All of us, regardless of party, should throw ourselves into the task of rebuilding our democratic institutions.”
The incoming Republican president has smashed conventions, vowed to
efface Obama’s legacy and hurled personal insults left and right, while
in a virtually unprecedented move US intelligence has accused the
Kremlin of seeking to tip the election in Trump’s favor.
Democrats, cast into the political wilderness with the loss of the
White House, the Senate and the House of Representatives plus a majority
of statehouses, are struggling to regroup.
Obama painted the task ahead as a generational challenge.
– Emotional finale –
“A faith in reason, and enterprise, and the primacy of right over
might” he said, had allowed the United States to “resist the lure of
fascism and tyranny during the Great Depression, and build a post-World
War II order with other democracies.”
In comments that resonate as Americans ponder whether Russia helped
to put Trump in the White House, Obama said “that order is now being
challenged.”
“First by violent fanatics who claim to speak for Islam; more
recently by autocrats in foreign capitals who see free markets, open
democracies, and civil society itself as a threat to their power.”
“The peril each poses to our democracy is more far-reaching than a car bomb or a missile. ”
Obama’s last trip on Air Force One was a pilgrimage to his adoptive
hometown, where he addressed a sell-out crowd of some 18,000 not far
from where he delivered his victory speech eight years ago.
Diehard fans — many African Americans — braved Chicago’s frigid
winter to collect free tickets, which were selling for upwards of $1,000
a piece on Craigslist.
They were joined by First Lady Michelle Obama, Vice President Joe
Biden and his wife Jill — who the president described as “family” in an
emotional finale to his speech.
Wiping a tear from his eye, Obama paid poignant tribute to his own
family, his daughter Malia who was present and Sasha who was not, and
the first lady who he addressed as his best friend.
“You took on a role you didn’t ask for and made it your own with
grace and grit and style and good humor,” he said. “A new generation
sets its sights higher because it has you as a role model. You’ve made
me proud. You’ve made the country proud.”
– Life after White House –
With an approval rating hovering around 55 percent, according to a
Quinnipiac University poll, Obama still carries considerable political
weight.
Some 51 percent of Americans polled believe that Trump is doing a bad job as president-elect.
Trump’s unorthodox politics have thrown the 55-year-old Obama’s transition and post-presidency plans into flux.
Having vowed a smooth handover of power, Obama has found himself
being increasingly critical of Trump as he prepares to leave office on
January 20.
After that there will still be a holiday and an autobiography, but
Obama could find himself being dragged backed into the political fray if
Trump were to enact a Muslim registry or deport adults brought to the
United States years ago by their parents.
Having vowed to take a backseat in politics, Obama’s second act could
yet be as politically engaged as Jimmy Carter — whose post-presidency
has remade his image as an elder statesman.
Many Obama aides who had planned to take exotic holidays or launch
coffer-replenishing forays into the private sector are also reassessing
their future and mulling a return to the political trenches.
Obama’s foundation is already gearing up for a quasi-political role — funneling idealistic youngsters into public life.
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