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  • Obama in New Year message canvasses sustenance of his 8-year legacies

    Obama in New Year message canvasses sustenance of his 8-year legacies

    Outgoing U.S. President Barack Obama has called for the sustenance of the legacies of his eight-year presidency as he hands over to President-elect Donald Trump on January 20, 2017.

    Obama, in a New Year message to Americans, said America had made significant progress over the past eight years as against the gloom that pervaded the country when he took office in 2009.

    “Happy New Year, everybody. At a time when we turn the page on one year and look ahead to the future, I just wanted to take a minute to thank you for everything you’ve done to make America stronger these past eight years.

    “Just eight years ago, as I prepared to take office, our economy teetered on the brink of depression.

    “Nearly 800,000 Americans were losing their jobs each month. In some communities, nearly one in five folks were out of work. Almost 180,000 troops were serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, and Osama bin Laden was still at large.

    “And on challenges from health care to climate change, we’d been kicking the can down the road for way too long.”

    According to him, eight years later, Americans are telling a better and different story.

    “We’ve turned recession into recovery. Our businesses have created 15.6 million new jobs since early 2010 – and we’ve put more people back to work than all other major advanced economies combined.

    “A resurgent auto industry has added nearly 700,000 jobs, and is producing more cars than ever. Poverty is falling. Incomes are rising.

    “In fact, last year, folks’ typical household income rose by 2,800 dollars, that’s the single biggest increase on record, and folks at the bottom and middle saw bigger gains than those at the top.

    “Twenty million more Americans know the financial security of health insurance. Our kids’ high school graduation rate is at an all-time high. We’ve brought 165,000 troops from Iraq and Afghanistan, and took out Osama bin Laden.

    “Through diplomacy, we shut down Iran’s nuclear weapons programme, opened up a new chapter with the people of Cuba, and brought nearly 200 nations together around a climate agreement that could save this planet for our kids.

    “Almost every country on Earth sees America as stronger and more respected today than they did eight years ago. And marriage equality is finally a reality from coast to coast.

    “We’ve made extraordinary progress as a country these past eight years. And here’s the thing: none of it was inevitable. It was the result of tough choices we made, and the result of your hard work and resilience.”

    The outgoing President, however, reminded the citizens that to keep America moving forward is a task that “falls to all of us”.

    “Sustaining and building on all we’ve achieved – from helping more young people afford a higher education, to ending discrimination based on preexisting conditions, to tightening rules on Wall Street, to protecting this planet for our kids – that’s going to take all of us working together.

    “Because that’s always been our story – the story of ordinary people coming together in the hard, slow, sometimes frustrating, but always vital work of self-government,” the two-term President said.

    Obama, who was inaugurated as the 44th U.S. President on Jan. 20, 2009, the only Black man in the history of U.S. to be elected president, and won re-election for the second and last term, described his two-term presidency as a “privilege”.

    “It’s been the privilege of my life to serve as your President.

    “And as I prepare to take on the even more important role of citizen, know that I will be there with you every step of the way to ensure that this country forever strives to live up to the incredible promise of our founding.

    “That all of us are created equal, and all of us deserve every chance to live out our dreams.

    “And from the Obama family to yours – have a happy and blessed 2017,” the former Illinois senator, who still receives uncommon high popularity ratings among Americans, concluded.

  • As Obama departs, we owe him our thanks – Jesse Jackson

    By Jesse Jackson

    The final days of the Obama presidency are upon us. His popularity is rising with the economy, and with the increasingly stark contrasts to his successor. It is worth being clear about the legacy that he leaves behind.

    Obama came to office facing the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. The global financial system teetered on collapse; the auto industry faced bankruptcy; the economy was shedding 400,000 jobs a day. He also inherited the catastrophe George Bush had created with the debacle in Iraq and government misrule dramatized by the shame of Katrina and New Orleans.

    Now, eight years later, the economy nears full employment, with more than 15 million jobs created and private sector jobs growth at a record 81 consecutive months and counting. Wages are beginning to rise, after long years of stagnation or worse. The auto industry has enjoyed some of its most prosperous years.

    This isn’t an accident. Obama helped rescue the economy by passing the largest stimulus in history, the most ambitious financial reform since the 1930s, and daring and direct intervention to save the auto industry. Economic growth helped lower the annual budget deficit to less than half the level he inherited.

    Obama also passed the largest health care reforms in six decades, providing health insurance for 20 million Americans. His reforms saved those with pre-existing conditions, provided the young with protection under their parents’ programs and, although most Americans don’t realize it, slowed the rise of health care costs dramatically.

    Running for re-election in 2012, Obama recognized that income inequality had become “the defining issue of our time.” With his progressive tax reforms both in his health care plan and in the partial repeal of the top-end Bush tax cuts, and with expanded tax credits for low-income workers and families with children, Obama made a significant beginning in addressing that inequality.

    Abroad, Obama struggled against great opposition to reduce America’s exposure in the wars without end in the Middle East. His nuclear agreement with Iran not only dismantled its nuclear weapons capable facilities, it also provided the most comprehensive and aggressive verification mechanisms in the history of arms control. In opening relations with Cuba, he helped reduce America’s isolation in our own hemisphere and made the historic turn from a policy of embargo that had failed for five decades.

    His most historic contribution was to understand the clear and present danger of catastrophic climate change. The agreement with China and subsequent Paris Accord cemented a global consensus on the need for bolder action on global warming. On his watch, America began to reduce its reliance on coal and its greenhouse gas emissions.

    Obama won a majority of the votes in both his election and re-election, something neither his predecessor nor successor achieved. He governed with grace and dignity, despite grotesque and too often racist provocations. His family provided a model for all Americans, with Michelle winning hearts across the country. He and his administration were remarkably free of scandal. His administration demonstrated once more that competence could be valued in Washington.

    He did all of this while facing unprecedented, unrelenting partisan obstruction, with the Republican leader of the Senate opposing him at every turn, intent on making him a one-term president. In part because of that opposition, much remained undone. The stimulus would have been larger and the recovery stronger except for Republican opposition. The national minimum wage would have been raised. A national infrastructure project to rebuild America would have been launched. Progress on making America the leader of the green revolution, the next global industrial revolution, would have been greater. Guantanamo, the shameful prison in Cuba, would have been closed. The Voting Rights Act would have been revived, and much more.

    For most Americans, the recovery was slow; for many it was invisible. Donald Trump won election promising working people a better deal. He appealed to our weariness with war, suggesting a less interventionist policy. He played upon divisions, rousing fears about immigrants and Muslims. He pledged to “make America great again,” in part by undoing everything Obama.

    So it is worth marking what Trump will inherit, as we head into what is already a rocky and tempestuous presidency. Unemployment under 5 percent. Eighty-one months of jobs growth and counting. Average wages rising at 2.4 percent over the last year. Growth at 3.5 percent over the last full quarter. Inflation at 2 percent. 20 million more Americans with health insurance. America one of the global leaders in the green industrial revolution. A president respected at home and abroad, known for his thoughtfulness and his great eloquence. Let us hope that Trump can build on that legacy, and not lead us into a far deeper hole.

  • Obama campaigned hard but lost to me – Trump

    Obama campaigned hard but lost to me – Trump

    Incoming U.S. President Donald Trump continued with his response to Obama’s claim that he could have defeated the president-elect in the Nov. 8 presidential election had the U.S. Constitution allowed him to run for the third term.

    The Correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in New York reports that Trump again took to his twitter handle on Tuesday to say that Obama “campaigned hard” for the Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in swing states and lost.

    The incoming president, in a series of tweet, implied that the voters rejected the Democrats policies and wanted to “make America great again”.

    “President Obama campaigned hard (and personally) in the very important swing states, and lost.

    “The voters wanted to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!

    “The world was gloomy before I won – there was no hope. Now the market is up nearly 10% and Christmas spending is over a trillion dollars!”

    “The U.S. Consumer Confidence Index for December surged nearly four points to 113.7, THE HIGHEST LEVEL IN MORE THAN 15 YEARS! Thanks Donald!” Trump said in his latest tweets.

    NAN recalls that Obama had told his former senior adviser David Axelrod in an interview for the “The Axe Files” podcast, produced by the University of Chicago Institute of Politics and CNN, aired on Monday that Americans still subscribed to his vision of progressive change, asserting that he could have succeeded in this year’s election if he was eligible to run.

    “I am confident in this vision because I’m confident that if I had run again and articulated it, I think I could’ve mobilised a majority of the American people to rally behind it.

    “I know that in conversations that I’ve had with people around the country, even some people who disagreed with me, they would say the vision, the direction that you point towards is the right one.”

    NAN reports that Trump had, however, taken to his twitter handle and responded to Obama’s claim in capital letters: “NO WAY!”.

    The president-elect also listed some policies under Obama’s administration, which he thought constituted baggage to the outgoing President, and would have made it difficult for Obama to be re-elected had the U.S. Constitution allowed him to contest for the third term.

    “President Obama said that he thinks he would have won against me.

    “He should say that but I say NO WAY! – jobs leaving, ISIS, OCare, etc,” Trump fired back at the outgoing president from whom he would take over on Jan. 20, 2017.

    NAN reports that Obama, a former Illinois senator, still receives high popularity ratings among Americans, currently exceeding 50 per cent, one of the highest for a two-term U.S. president.

    NAN also reports that Obama had in his last Christmas address from the White House, listed some of his administration’s achievements in the last eight years.

    “Together, we fought our way back from the worst recession in 80 years, and got unemployment to a nine-year low.

    “We secured health insurance for another 20 million Americans, and new protections for folks who already had insurance.

    “We made America more respected around the world, took on the mantle of leadership in the fight to protect this planet for our kids, and much, much more.

    “By so many measures, our country is stronger and more prosperous than it was when we first got here. And I’m hopeful we’ll build on the progress we’ve made in the years to come.”

    The two-term president said that there was a difference between Trump’s change mantra of 2016 and the hope-and-change vision he heralded in 2008, which won him outstanding victory over Republican John McCain.

    “In the wake of the election and Trump winning, a lot of people have suggested that somehow, it really was a fantasy.

    “What I would argue is, is that the culture actually did shift, that the majority does buy into the notion of a one America that is tolerant and diverse and open and full of energy and dynamism.”

    NAN recalls that in the Nov. 8 presidential election, while Clinton beat Trump in the popular vote by almost 2.9 million ballots, Trump won more electoral votes and consequently, the presidency.

  • You couldn’t have defeated me – Trump replies Obama

    You couldn’t have defeated me – Trump replies Obama

    President-elect of the United States, Donald Trump, has replied the President Barack Obama over claims that he (Obama) would have defeated him.

    Obama had on Monday said Americans still subscribe to his vision of progressive change, asserting that he could have succeeded if he was eligible to run in the November 8 presidential election.

    But Trump fired back at the outgoing president saying he couldn’t have defeated him (Trump) if the contest was between both of them.

    Recall that Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton had keenly contested the November 8 presidential elections which the later won.

    He took to his twitter handle @realDonaldTrump to reply Obama’s claim.

    He wrote: “President Obama said that he thinks he would have won against me.

    “He should say that but I say NO WAY! – jobs leaving, ISIS, OCare, etc.”

    Obama made history when he was elected as the first black and 44th president of the United States in 2008. He succeeded President George Bush.

    Obama will hand over power to Donald Trump as the 45th President of the United States on January 20.

  • I have done well as president, says Obama

    U.S. President Barack Obama has given himself a pass mark, telling Americans that he has done well in office as president in the last eight years.

    Obama, who made the remarks in his final press conference of the year, justified his actions on issues ranging from the economy to Syria, and from the Russia hacking scandal to the passage of Obamacare.

    “I am very proud of the work I’ve done. I think I’m a better president now than when I started,” Obama said.

    The president said his administration is a historic success, in spite of a rough beginning.

    “When I came into office, 44 million people were uninsured. Today, we have covered more than 20 million of them. For the first time in our history, more than 90 per cent of Americans are insured.”

    The President recalled the economic turmoil raging when he took office in the teeth of the worst recession in decades in 2009.

    “As I was preparing to take office, the unemployment rate was on its way to 10 per cent. Today it is at 4.6 per cent, the lowest in nearly a decade.”

    Obama also rrcalled, for the umpteenth time, the slaying of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, and noted that he had brought 165,000 troops home.

    “What I can say with confidence is that what we’ve done works. That I can prove.

    “I can show you where we were in 2008 and I can show you where we are now. And you can’t argue that we are not better off. We are,” the two-term U.S. president said.

    Obama explained that he had always had the best of motives and that where he had failed, it was often owing to a lack of better choices.

    He noted the helpless horror at the human carnage in Aleppo, and admitted that he agonised over Syria more than any other issue.

    “I always feel responsible. There are places around the world where horrible things are happening and because of my office, because I’m President of the United States, I feel responsible.

    “I ask myself every single day, ‘Is there something I could do that would save lives and make a difference and spare some child who doesn’t deserve to suffer?’”

    Obama, however, believed only a massive deployment by an already exhausted American military could have turned the tide.

    According to him, the only choice, therefore, was to use diplomacy to stem the bloodletting.

    “I cannot claim that we have been successful. That’s something that, as is true with a lot of issues and problems around the world, I have to go to bed with every night.

    “But I continue to believe that it was the right approach given what realistically we could get done,” he said.

    Obama also rebuffed criticism that he had been slow to respond to allegations of Russian cyber-meddling in the presidential election.

    “My primary concern was making sure that the integrity of the election process was not in any way damaged, at a time when anything that was said by me or anybody in the White House would immediately be seen through a partisan lens,” Obama explained.

    The outgoing U.S. President also made reference to Russia meddling in the U.S. election.

    He said when he met Putin in China in September, he told him to “cut it out” and pledged to hit Russia in public and covert ways before he leaves office on Jan. 20, 2017.

    He expressed dissatisfaction with the Republicans who opposed him, the press who he said overly dwelt in trivialities and the coarsening of political culture.

    He expressed contempt for the Republicans who are now ready to accept Trump’s admiration of Putin.

    “Ronald Reagan would roll over in his grave,” he said.

    He lashed out at Putin and Assad for “savage” assaults on Aleppo and was particularly disdainful of Russia itself.

    “The Russians can’t change us or significantly weaken us. They are a smaller country, they are a weaker country, their economy doesn’t produce anything that anybody wants to buy except oil and gas and arms. They don’t innovate.”

    Obama said that the coverage of Hillary Clinton during the campaign was troubling, noting, however, that Democrats need to show up where people are hurting.

    “Democrats are characterised as coastal, liberal, latte-sipping, you know, politically correct, out-of-touch folks. We have to be in those communities.”

    The President also denied tensions between him and Trump, as his own aides and those of the President-elect spar over the Russia hacking of emails belonging to the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee.

    He said China would not stand for the President-elect’s warning that the status of Taiwan could be on the table in his “increasingly acrimonious relationship” with Beijing.

    Obama warned Trump that there was a difference between campaigning and being President, adding it was a reality that Trump has yet to embrace.

    He said: “I think there is a sobering process when you walk into the Oval Office,” Obama said.

    “What the President-elect is going to be doing is going to be very different than what I was doing and I think people will be able to compare and contrast and make judgments about what worked for the American people.”

  • Critics thought my presidency would last only a year – Obama

    Critics thought my presidency would last only a year – Obama

    Outgoing U.S. President Barack Obama has disclosed that some people believe that he would not survive more than a year as U.S. President.

    Obama disclosed this in his remarks at the 2016 Hanukkah Reception at the White House.

    The Hanukkah is a Jewish holiday commemorating the rededication of the Holy Temple (the Second Temple) in Jerusalem at the time of the Maccabean Revolt against the Seleucid Empire.

    “I want to say how much Michelle and I appreciate the opportunities to have celebrated so many Hanukkahs with you in the White House.

    “You know, at the beginning of my presidency, some critics thought it would last for only a year.

    “But, miracle of miracles, it has lasted eight years.

    “It’s lasted eight whole years. Nes Gadol Haya Po,” the two-term U.S. president said.

    Hanukkah is observed for eight nights and days, starting on the 25th day of Kislev according to the Hebrew calendar, which may occur at any time from late November to late December in the Gregorian calendar.

    It is also known as the Festival of Lights and the Feast of Dedication.

    The Hanukkah 2016 celebrations will start on the evening of Saturday, Dec. 24, 2016, and will end on the evening of Sunday, Jan. 1, 2017.

    Obama remarked that “as many of you know, the name ‘Hanukkah’ comes from the Hebrew word for ‘dedication’.

    “So we want to thank you again for your dedication to our country, to the historic progress that we’ve made, to the defense of religious freedom in the United States and around the world.

    “Today in the White House, as you will soon do in your homes, we recall Hanukkah’s many lessons: How a small group can make a big difference.

    “That’s the story of the Maccabees’ unlikely military victory, and of great moral movements around the globe and across time. How a little bit can go a long way, like the small measure of oil that outlasted every expectation.

    “It reminds us that even when our resources seem limited, our faith can help us make the most of what little we have.

    “The small State of Israel and the relatively small Jewish population of this country have punched far above their weight in their contributions to the world. So the Festival of Lights is also a reminder of how Isaiah saw the Jewish people, as a light unto the nations.”

    According to him, this is the season that we appreciate the many miracles, large and small, that have graced our lives throughout generations, and to recognise that the most meaningful among them is our freedom.

    “The first chapter of the Hanukkah story was written 22 centuries ago, when rulers banned religious rituals and persecuted Jews who dared to observe their faith.

    “Which is why today we are asked not only to light the menorah, but to proudly display it – to publicise the mitzvah. And that’s why we’ve invited all these reporters who are here.”

    He said that everybody in America could understand the spirit of the Hanukkah tradition.

    “Proudly practicing our religion, whatever it might be – and defending the rights of others to do the same – that’s our common creed.

    “That’s what families from coast to coast confirm when they place their menorah in the window ‘ not to share the candles’ glow with just your family, but also with your community and with your neighbors.

    “The story of Hanukkah, the story of the Jewish people, the story of perseverance – these are one and the same,” the outgoing U.S. President said.

    Recall Obama made history when he was inaugurated as the 44th U.S. President on Jan. 20, 2008 as the first Black man in the history of U.S. to achieve such enviable feats.

    The former Illinois senator, who still receives high popularity ratings among Americans, won re-election for the second and last term in 2012 and will be out of office on Jan. 20, 2017.

  • I suffered racism in office, Obama laments

    I suffered racism in office, Obama laments

    Outgoing U.S. President Barack Obama has disclosed that he ‘absolutely’ suffered racism in office, adding Americans’ ‘primary concern about me has been that I seem foreign’.

    “The concept of race in America is not just genetic, otherwise the one-drop rule wouldn’t have made sense”.

    “It’s cultural. It’s this notion of a people who look different than the mainstream, suffering terrible oppression.

    “But somehow being able to make out of that a music and a language and a faith and a patriotism,” Obama said, in a special looking back on his legacy with CNN’s Fareed Zakaria.

    “I think there’s a reason why attitudes about my presidency among whites in Northern states are very different from whites in Southern states.

    “Are there folks whose primary concern about me has been that I seem foreign, the other? Are those who champion the ‘birther’ movement feeding off of bias? Absolutely.”

    Obama said the colour of his skin had ‘absolutely’ contributed to white Americans’ negative perceptions of his time in office.

    The president said: “I think there’s a reason why attitudes about my presidency among whites in Northern states are very different from whites in Southern states”.

    Obama told Zakaria in the special interview on his legacy that was taped in September that he did not mind being defined as the nation’s first black president.

    According to Zakaria, Obama was raised by ‘three white people’: his mother, Ann Dunham, and his grandparents, Stanley and Madelyn Dunham.

    “And an Indonesian, you can throw in there”, Obama added, making reference to his stepfather, Lolo Soetoro.

    David Axelrod, a senior adviser to Obama at the White House who now runs the Chicago Institute of Politics, concurred.

    “It’s indisputable that there was a ferocity to the opposition and a lack of respect to him that was a function of race,” Axelrod said.

    According to him, at least one powerful Republican was personally disrespectful to Obama.

    “He (the Republican)said to him (Obama), ‘we don’t really think you should be here but the American people thought otherwise. So we’re going to have to work with you,” Axelrod said.

    President-elect Donald Trump, promoted birther arguments, encouraging hackers to look into Obama’s place of birth in 2014.

    Trump said in an August 2012 tweet: “An “extremely credible source” has called my office and told me that @BarackObama’s birth certificate is a fraud”.

    The Republican, however, said recently that he no longer believed that Obama was born in Kenya.

    “President Barack Obama was born in the United States, period. Now, we all want to get back to making America strong and great again,” Trump said.

    He, however, made no apology for his previous statements and claimed that Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign began the birther movement in 2008.

    Clinton’s campaign accused Trump of having connections to white nationalists and that he needs to ‘own up to it.’

    Obama took Trump’s about-face in stride, joking at a September Congressional Black Caucus Gala, saying “If there’s an extra spring in my step tonight, it’s because I am so relieved that the whole birther thing is over”.