Yes we did, Obama says in farewell speech
BARACK Obama addressed America and the world for the last time as US president on Tuesday, in a speech that was both a tearful goodbye and a call to arms.
Capping eight years in the White House, Obama returned to his adopted hometown of Chicago to recast his “yes we can” campaign credo as “yes we did”.
Surveying the staging posts of his presidency – from the Iran nuclear deal to reforming healthcare – the speech sought to lift supporters shaken by Donald Trump’s shock election.
The 55-year-old Obama urged them to pick up the torch, fight for democracy and forge a new, fairer, “social compact”.
“For all our outward differences, we are all in this together,” he said, warning that naked partisanship, racism and inequality all threatened democracy. “We rise or fall as one.” The incoming Republican president has smashed convention, vowed to efface Obama’s legacy and hurled personal insults, while US intelligence has accused the Kremlin of seeking to tip the election in Trump’s favour.
Democrats, cast into the political wilderness with the loss of the White House, the Senate and the House of Representatives plus a majority of state legislatures, are struggling to regroup.
Obama painted the task ahead as a generational challenge.
“A faith in reason and enterprise and the primacy of right over might had allowed the US to resist the lure of fascism and tyranny during the Great Depression, and build a post-World War 2 order with other democracies.”
“That order is now being challenged,” Obama said.
“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 Chicago, 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 of them African Americans – braved Chicago’s frigid winter to collect free tickets, which were selling for upwards of $1 000 (R13 900) apiece on Craigslist. They were joined by First Lady Michelle Obama, and Vice-President Joe Biden and his wife Jill – who the president described as “family” in an emotional finale.
Wiping a tear from his eye, Obama paid a poignant tribute to his own family, daughters Malia, who was present, and Sasha, who stayed in Washington because of an exam, and the first lady, whom 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 humour,” 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.”
Obama also acknowledged that his historic presidency was not a panacea for the country’s racist past, saying “race remains a potent and often divisive force in our society”.
Trump’s unorthodox politics have thrown Obama’s transition and post-presidency plans into flux.
Having vowed a smooth handover of power, he has found himself being increasingly critical of Trump as he prepares to leave office on January 20.