{"id":29605,"date":"2017-01-10T22:14:05","date_gmt":"2017-01-10T22:14:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/en.bornomalanews.com\/?p=29605"},"modified":"2017-01-10T22:15:16","modified_gmt":"2017-01-10T22:15:16","slug":"barack-obama-says-goodbye-in-farewell-speech","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/en.bornomalanews.com\/?p=29605","title":{"rendered":"Barack Obama says goodbye in farewell speech"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n
\"Barack\"<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n

AFP . Washington (<\/span>Jan 10, 2017): Barack Obama closes the book on his presidency Tuesday, with a farewell speech in Chicago that will try to lift supporters filled by Donald Trump\u2019s shock victory.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Obama\u2019s last trip on Air Force One will be a pilgrimage to his adoptive hometown, where he will address a sell-out crowd not far from where he accepted the presidency eight years ago.<\/p>\n

Diehard fans\u2014many African Americans\u2014have braved Chicago\u2019s frigid winter to collect free tickets, which now sell for upwards of $1,000 a piece on Craigslist.<\/p>\n

The First Lady Michelle Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and his wife Jill Biden will come along on for the ride.<\/p>\n

Obama\u2019s cross-country trek would be a sentimental trip down memory lane, were it not slap-bang in the middle of a tumultuous presidential handover.<\/p>\n

Trump has smashed conventions, vowed to efface Obama\u2019s legacy and hurled personal insults left and right.<\/p>\n

The 2016 election campaign has raised serious questions about the resilience of US democracy.<\/p>\n

In a virtually unprecedented move, US intelligence has accused the Kremlin of tipping the electoral scales in Trump\u2019s favor.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

With an approval rating hovering around 55 percent, Obama will hope to steal them for new battles ahead.<\/p>\n

Lead speechwriter Cody Keenan said the address will be about Obama\u2019s vision for where the country should still go.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not going to be like an anti-Trump speech, it\u2019s not going to be a red meat, rabble-rousing thing, it will be statesman-like but it will also be true to him,\u201d Keenan told AFP. \u201cIt will tell a story.\u201d<\/p>\n

    \n
  • Life after White House –<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    Trump\u2019s unorthodox politics has thrown 55-year-old Obama\u2019s transition and post-presidency plans into flux.<\/p>\n

    Obama, having vowed a smooth handover of power, finds himself being increasingly critical of Trump as he prepares to leave office on January 20.<\/p>\n

    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.<\/p>\n

    Having vowed to take a back seat in politics, Obama\u2019s second act could yet be as politically engaged as Jimmy Carter\u2014whose post-presidency has remade his image as an elder statesman.<\/p>\n

    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.<\/p>\n

    Obama\u2019s foundation is already gearing up for a quasi-political role\u2014funneling idealistic youngsters into public life.<\/p>\n

      \n
    • Presidential precedent –<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

      Presidents since George Washington have delivered a farewell address of sorts.<\/p>\n

      Washington\u2019s final 7,641-word message\u2014which is still read once a year in the Senate by tradition\u2014contained warnings about factionalism and interference by foreign powers that seem oddly prescient.<\/p>\n

      But speechwriter Keenan sees few obvious templates: \u201cBush and Clinton did theirs from here (the White House), George H.W. Bush went to West Point, gave a foreign policy speech,\u201d he told AFP. \u201cThey are all totally different.\u201d<\/p>\n

      The trip to Chicago is not just for nostalgia, Keenan indicated.<\/p>\n

      \u201cThe thread that has run through his career from his days as the community organizer to the Oval Office is the idea that if you get ordinary people together and get them educated, get them empowered, get them to act on something, that\u2019s when good things happen,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

      <\/div>\n

      \u201cFor him, as someone who started as a community organizer, whose campaign was powered by young people, ordinary people, we decided we wanted to go back to Chicago.\u201d<\/p>\n

      \u201cChicago is not just his hometown, it\u2019s where his career started.\u201d<\/p>\n

      And now it is also where Obama\u2019s presidential career will effectively end.<\/p>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      AFP . Washington (Jan 10, 2017): Barack Obama closes the book on his presidency Tuesday, with a farewell speech in Chicago that will try to lift supporters filled by Donald Trump\u2019s shock victory. Obama\u2019s last trip on Air Force One will be a pilgrimage to his adoptive hometown, where he will address a sell-out crowd […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":29606,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5,14],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\n\n\n\t\n