Obama’s farewell speech has him ending on a high note

President Obama leaves office on a high note and his reputation will continue to improve after he leaves the White House and Donald Trump moves in.

The latest Gallup Poll shows a clear majority of Americans (56 percent) giving the president a positive approval rating.

Why do Americans value the performance of the outgoing president so much? The reasons for the president’s standing were on full display last night in his farewell address in his hometown of Chicago.

His speech was an appeal to the republic’s better angels. It was an uplifting, empty of anger and recrimination. The president highlighted the progress that the United States has made since its birth and discussed his dreams for nation’s future.

The juxtaposition between Obama’s farewell speech Tuesday night and Donald Trump’s press conference Wednesday morning were jarring. The president-elect used his presser to attack Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, among others — two months after the end of the campaign.

The Constitution limits the chief executive’s formal power but there’s nothing that can stop his capacity to use the bully pulpit to bring Americans together. The tone of Obama’s address and his administration was hopeful, while the vibe at Trump’s presser and during his transition were divisive.

The president also highlighted the significant advances the nation has made during his presidency. When Obama became president, the nation was bogged down in the sands of two wars, trapped in the grip of a devastating recession and sickened by a healthcare crisis.

{mosads}When Obama moved into the White House, the U.S. economy was going to hell in a handbasket. During his presidency, the nation created more than 9 million jobs.

Georges Clémenceau, the prime minister of France during World War I, once said “It’s easier to make war than to make peace.” In January 2009, the U.S. was bogged down in major wars in Iraq and Afghanistan with hundreds of thousands of Americans fighting under the desert sun. Now the U.S. has only token forces in both Middle Eastern countries. At the same time, the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has lost half of its conquests and much of its top leadership.

Democrats should have called ObamaCare “Obama Cares.” More than 20 million more Americans now have lifesaving healthcare insurance through the Affordable Care Act. In his speech, the outgoing president pointed out that healthcare costs are growing at the “slowest rate in 50 years.”

Obama’s legacy will live long after he moves out of the White House. National polls indicate that Americans already are regretting the transition from Obama to Trump. Donald Trump isn’t even president yet and his administration is mired in scandal and conflicts of interest.

The longer Donald Trump is president, the more Barack Obama’s popularity and approval will increase. Obama’s stature will cast a long shadow over Trump’s presidency.

Brad Bannon is a Democratic pollster and CEO of Bannon Communications Research. (He is not related in any way to the alt-right leader and Trump adviser Stephen Bannon.) Campaigns and Elections magazine called him a “mover and shaker” in the political consulting industry. He hosts and contributes regularly to the nationally syndicated progressive talk show, “The Leslie Marshall Show.” Bannon is also a political analyst for CLTV, the cable news station of the Chicago Tribune and WGN-TV. He is also a senior adviser to, and editor of, the blog at MyTiller.com, the social media network for politics. Contact him at 202-320-4182 or brad@bannoncr.com.


The views expressed by contributors are their own and not the views of The Hill.

Tags Barack Obama Donald Trump Hillary Clinton

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