It’s Barack Obama’s last year in the White House and he has done quite a bit in terms of policy making in the Land of Dreams. He took the opportunity while addressing the nation one last time to reflect on what he has done in the past seven years as POTUS, pointing out both his failures and accomplishments. Here are some brief highlights:

During Obama’s election campaign, he had made promises to end the division between political parties – yet instead of accomplishing this, things seem to be even worse than before. For this, he apologised:

It’s one of the few regrets of my presidency, that the rancor and suspicion between the parties has gotten worse instead of better. A president with the gifts of Lincoln or Roosevelt might have better bridged the divide.

As frustration grows, there will be voices urging us to fall back into tribes, to scapegoat fellow citizens who don’t look like us, or pray like us, or vote like we do, or share the same background.

We can’t afford to go down that path.

Throughout his whole speech, Obama repeatedly sought to contrast his political opponents’ bleak appraisals of the state using his own upbeat way of talking. He made a few jokes, got serious about other aspects and defended his decisions. According to the New York Times:

The speech, a mix of Mr. Obama’s often lofty rhetoric and punchy, colloquial language, drew more scattered applause than in earlier years. The president appeared liberated by his decision not to present the usual menu of legislative proposals, although it lasted an hour and four minutes, longer than some past addresses. Mr. Obama spoke informally at times, and with occasional flashes of humor.

Mr. Obama opted for symbolism to make some of his points, leaving a chair empty in the first lady’s guest box to symbolize the victims of gun violence. The other seats were filled by an array of guests including a Syrian refugee. Among the guests invited by Republican lawmakers was Kim Davis, the Kentucky court clerk who became a folk hero to social conservatives for refusing to sign marriage certificates for same-sex couples.

Good luck for the rest of the year, Obama.

[source: nytimes]