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Today marked the day President Barack Obama would make his final speech as leader of the free world. While he did concede disappointment on some broken promises during his time in the White House and wanted to remind Americans of the importance of a smooth and cooperative transfer of power to the President-Elect, Obama ended his tenure by tearing up when thanking his family, notably his wife.“Michelle — for the past twenty-five years, you’ve been not only my wife and mother of my children, but my best friend,” the President gushed. “You took on a role you didn’t ask for and made it your own with grace and grit and style and good humour. You made the White House a place that belongs to everybody. And 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.”
To daughters Mahlia and Sasha: “Malia and Sasha, under the strangest of circumstances, you have become two amazing young women, smart and beautiful, but more importantly, kind and thoughtful and full of passion,” Obama said. “You wore the burden of years in the spotlight so easily. Of all that I’ve done in my life, I’m most proud to be your dad.”
To vice-president Joe Biden: “the scrappy kid from Scranton who became Delaware’s favourite son: you were the first choice I made as a nominee, and the best. Not just because you have been a great Vice President, but because in the bargain, I gained a brother. We love you and Jill like family, and your friendship has been one of the great joys of our life.”
His lasting words: “For now, whether you’re young or young at heart, I do have one final ask of you as your president — the same thing I asked when you took a chance on me eight years ago. I am asking you to believe. Not in my ability to bring about change — but in yours,” he continued. “I am asking you to hold fast to that faith written into our founding documents; that idea whispered by slaves and abolitionists; that spirit sung by immigrants and homesteaders and those who marched for justice; that creed reaffirmed by those who planted flags from foreign battlefields to the surface of the moon; a creed at the core of every American whose story is not yet written:
Yes we can.
Yes we did.
Yes we can.”
You can watch the farewell address in full here:
