US PRESIDENT’S LAST SPEECH
Obama urges citizens to rebuild democracy
Chicago — Barack Obama addressed the US and the world for the last time as US president on Tuesday, in a speech that was a tearful goodbye and a call to arms. Capping eight years in the White House, Obama returned to his adopted hometown of Chicago to recast his "yes we can" campaign credo as "yes we did". Surveying the staging posts of his presidency — from the Iran nuclear deal to reforming healthcare — the speech sought to lift supporters shaken by Donald Trump’s shock election. Obama urged them to fight for democracy and to forge a new, fairer "social compact". "For all our outward differences, we are all in this together," he said, warning that naked partisanship, racism and inequality all threatened democracy. "We rise or fall as one." He said: "All of us, regardless of party, should throw ourselves into the task of rebuilding our democratic institutions." The incoming Republican president has smashed convention, vowed to efface Obama’s legacy and hurled personal insults left ...
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