Barack Obama speech not quite best for last, a farewell on familiar themes

Barack Obama, wife Michelle and daughter Malia yesterday.

Barack Obama gave his last speech as President yesterday. How good was it?

It was not as great, probably, as the speech Obama gave in Selma, Alabama, in 2015, when he stepped on to a bridge across which Martin Luther King walked and addressed race relations.

“Our march is not yet finished, but we’re getting closer,” Obama said then. “Two-hundred and thirty-nine years after this nation’s founding, our union is not yet perfect, but we are getting there ... And when it feels the road is too hard, when the torch we’ve been passed feels too heavy, we will remember these early travellers, and draw strength … and we will soar on wings like eagles.”

There was also the speech Obama gave at a Charleston church after nine black people were slain by a crazed gunman, when Obama paused, then sang: “Amazing Grace, how sweet thou art.”

And, of course, there was his dazzling speech the night before the 2008 presidential election, to 70,000 people in the pouring rain: “Are you fired up? Are you ready to go? Let’s go change the world.”

Yesterday’s speech contained familiar themes, of America as place of hope and freedom. A place to serve, toil, and unleash the imagination. A place of forward motion.

Obama spoke of his achievements over eight years: job creation, health insurance, the death of Osama bin Laden.

He included a call to arms to those who hold the most important office in the land: that of citizen. If something needs fixing, lace up your boots. Show up. Dive in. Stay at it.

Sometimes you’ll win, sometimes you’ll lose. Mostly, though, your faith in your fellow citizens will be rewarded.

He expressed his pride in that hallmark of democracy, the peaceful transition of power, and he placed the “middle-aged white guy” whose world has been up-ended this century, on the stage. But the best bit, probably, came near the end when he addressed his wife.

Michelle.

That’s how he said it. Simple and loving. Michelle.

“Michelle, for the past 25 years, you’ve been not only my wife and mother of my children, but my best friend,” he said.

“You have made the White House a place that belongs to everybody.

“You’ve made me proud. You’ve made the country proud.”

Of his daughters — the younger one, Sasha, was absent, doing homework — he said: “Of all that I’ve done in my life, I’m most proud to be your dad.”

To his Vice-President, Joe Biden, he said: “I gained a brother.”

And then, speaking directly to the youth of today — “one day, you will outnumber all of us” — he said: “I am asking you to hold fast to that creed at the core of every American whose story is not yet written:

“Yes, we can. Yes, we did. Yes, we can.”

Yes, it was a good speech. Not the greatest, but then the bar was set very high — by him.