Obama to deliver farewell speech in Chicago
He’s only just begun to write.
President Obama announced Monday that he’ll deliver his farewell address to the nation next week in his hometown of Chicago.
“I’m just beginning to write me remarks,” Obama said in a letter to supporters, ahead of the speech, which is scheduled for Tuesday, Jan. 10, at the McCormick Place Convention Center in the Windy City.
“But I’m thinking about them as a chance to say thank you for this amazing journey, to celebrate the ways you’ve changed this country for the better these past eight years, and to offer some thoughts on where we all go from here,” he added.
Obama said the good-bye speech is a tradition dating back to the country’s first president.
“In 1796, as George Washington set the precedent for a peaceful, democratic transfer of power, he also set a precedent by penning a farewell address to the American people,” the outgoing president wrote to supporters.
Obama lauded his supporters facing challenges over the last eight years and “com[ing] through them stronger.”
“That’s because we have never let go of a belief that has guided us ever since our founding — our conviction that, together, we can change this country for the better,” he said.