I miss Barack H. Obama already … and he’s still on the job as president of the United States.
Tonight, though, he’s going to bid us all farewell in a speech delivered in Chicago. I don’t usually remember specifics of presidential farewells, other than recalling how I felt in real time as they were delivering them.
I anticipate a mixed feeling tonight as I listen to President Obama recount his successes and, perhaps, his failures. As with all presidents, they have their high- and low-water marks.
My appreciation for this man hinges on the dignity he brought to the office. He stood proudly as the leader of the free world and as commander in chief. He seemed to wear both titles well, which is saying something for the latter, given that he didn’t serve in the military. He brought a certain bearing to that role.
I trust, too, he’ll remind us yet again about how difficult life had gotten in this country when he became president. He’ll tell us of the measures he pushed through Congress to stimulate a collapsing economy.
Yes, I’ll miss him.
It might be as well that my feelings for Barack Obama — and his family — are tinged in large measure by the feeling I harbor toward his successor. I won’t belabor that particular point here, except to say that the juxtaposition of those two emotions highlights and underscores my sense of sadness as I watch the current president say goodbye.
I won’t predict that we’ll hear a signature phrase that we’ll take away from this speech tonight, but neither will I be surprised to hear one. I guess the most memorable of those phrases in my lifetime came from President Eisenhower, a one-time general of the Army and hero of World War II, who warned of the “military-industrial complex” wielding too much power in the future.
Imagine such an admonition, coming from Ike, of all people!
It’ll be a watershed moment to be sure.