Obama says ‘it’s my turn to say thank you’

President Barack Obama speaks during his farewell address at McCormick Place in Chicago, Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2017. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

President Barack Obama said in Tuesday’s farewell speech that this was his opportunity to say thank you for all the friendly greetings he has received in the last weeks of his presidency.

The outgoing president had barely begun his speech in Chicago before the crowd offered rhythmic cries of ‘four more years’.

The mantra has become a slogan among many of the president’s listeners, who would like to see him sitting in the White House for another term. But the U.S. Constitution only allows for two terms, eight years, before the inexorable end for each sitting president.

‘I cannot’, was his answer to the ‘demand’ of ‘four more years’.

Obama gave his original acceptance speech in his hometown of Chicago, where he arrived as a young man, and began with church work and had his political awakening.

To cheers and the sound of U2’s ‘City of Blinding Lights’ he opened with the classic phrase ‘my fellow Americans.’

‘It’s good to be home. Michelle and I have been touched by all the congratulations we have received in recent weeks, and tonight it’s my turn to say thank you.

Our conversations with the American people across the country, and at all levels, is what has kept me inspired, and kept me going’, said Obama to further cheers.

In his speech, he referred both to his own campaign slogan, and the US Constitution.

‘Change only happens when ordinary people become involved and committed, and demand change. After eight years, I still think about it.

It is the beating heart behind the idea of America. The belief that we are all created equal, with certain inalienable rights – the right to life, liberty, and to seek our fortunes’, said the outgoing president, quoting directly from the Declaration of Independence, written in 1776.

 

 

Source: NTB scanpix / Norway Today