President Barack Obama Delivers Flawed and Remarkable Farewell Speech Matthew Cooper - Newsweek
go to original January 11, 2017

Barack Obama farewell speech highlights (BBC News)

It lacked the fearsomeness of Dwight Eisenhower’s farewell warnings about the “military-industrial complex” or George Washington’s goodbye concern about foreign entanglements. At times, it seemed oddly showy, what with 25,000 in attendance and it being bookended by music from U2 and Bruce Springsteen. And it was long, almost an hour. But Barack Obama’s farewell speech was worthy of a president who galvanized a nation. It was a fitting, if occasionally gassy, coda to his eight years in office delivered just before the beginning of the Donald Trump era.

In some ways it was a campaign speech, a battle cry for the next chapter of the 55-year-old’s life. After repeatedly imploring Americans to fight for their democracy, he said: “I’ll be right there with you... for all the rest of my days.” No one could have mistaken the message. He was not going to devote himself simply to good works like Jimmy Carter, global dealing like Bill Clinton or the more humble post-presidency of George W. Bush. He’d stay in the arena.

Obama’s call for civic involvement, from urging citizens to get off the internet and engage their neighbors “in real life” to pushing them to grab “a clipboard” and run for office, was befitting a community organizer and the first African-American president. In some ways, Obama grafted his own biography onto his message, noting that he’d found his calling in public service in Chicago not far from the McCormick Center where he spoke.



There was no mention of Trump by name, but Obama clearly had him in mind when he talked about not demonizing opponents; about relying on science and reason when it comes to climate change and other issues; and in repeated and much-cheered bromides that Muslims, refugees and immigrants should be embraced and not belittled. Progress, he said, sometimes takes “two steps forward, and one step back.” And he seemed to take aim at the president-elect on race and jobs: “If every economic issue is framed as a struggle between a hard-working white middle class and undeserving minorities,” he said, “then workers of all shades will be left fighting for scraps while the wealthy withdraw further into their private enclaves.”

Like most presidents, Obama did some boasting on his way out of office. He twice mentioned killing Osama bin Laden and took pride in the growth of the American economy and restoration of the auto industry, as well as his historic expansion of health insurance. “Yes, we can,” he said, echoing his famous campaign rallying cry. “Yes, we did.”

He also ignored some sore spots in his record. There was no mention of Syria. He talked about efforts to close the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba but did not elaborate on his failure to get Congress to agree. Oddly, there was no mention of the two women he nominated to the Supreme Court, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor, but predictably there was also no mention of his third nominee, Merrick Garland, who never received a vote.

Read the rest at Newsweek

Related: Twitter's Humor Made Obama's Final Speech a Little Easier to Swallow (The Huffington Post)

Related: New Poll Reveals America Is Deeply Divided Over Obama's Legacy (Mexico Star)

Related: Obama Prods Trump and Touts U.S. Values in Final Address (Newsweek)

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