Viewers can watch Barack Obama’s final speech live online and see what will be the final address of a historic presidency.
Obama is set to deliver the farewell speech on Tuesday night at 9 p.m. ET from the president’s adopted hometown of Chicago. The setting will be different than his victory address in 2008 when Obama spoke before 240,000 supporters in Grant Park. Tuesday’s speech will take place at McCormick Place, a smaller convention center.
As Obama’s closest advisers noted, the setting is an important one for the outgoing president.
“Chicago was a natural place for him, not just because it’s hometown,” White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki told the Chicago Tribune , “but because it’s where he got his political start, and it’s where he really first learned the lesson … that it’s about the actions of individuals and the actions of people, that’s how real change happens.”
Those who watch Barack Obama’s final speech live online will see a retrospect of sorts. In a preview of the address, Obama said he would think back on his long career in public service.
“I’ll be thinking back to being a young community organizer, pretty much fresh out of school, and feeling as if my faith in America’s ability to bring about change in our democracy has been vindicated,” Obama said in a White House video previewing his speech, via the Associated Press .
In just 10 days, Barack Obama will be leaving office after a historic presidency. He entered the 2008 Democratic primary as an outsider, serving as a U.S. Senator for just four years after bursting onto the national scene when he delivered the keynote address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention.
Obama pulled off a stunning upset of Hillary Clinton in the primary and then rode a wave of support through the campaign, speaking before record-size crowds and raising enormous sums with a strategy of seeking out many small donations online; a formula that would later be picked up by Bernie Sanders to much success.
Barack Obama’s eight-year term was marked by some historic accomplishments, including passing a health care reform package that many previous Democrats had tried and failed to implement, as well as some sharp political divisions.
Aides say Pres. Obama has been planning his speech for months. Tonight, he’ll say goodbye to the nation from Chicago https://t.co/ei3A2gLpUN pic.twitter.com/H8ad7ooWIT
— CNN (@CNN) January 10, 2017
Watching Barack Obama’s final speech live online may be the only way to see it if you can’t make it to a television. As the Telegraph noted, tickets for Obama’s farewell speech were gone almost immediately and fetched a big price on the secondary market.
“However, tickets have nevertheless been very hard to come by. People queued through the night from Friday to Saturday morning, in freezing cold temperatures, to get their hands on the free tickets. Some tickets are now reportedly selling for $5,000 on eBay and Craigslist.”
There will likely be high interest in Obama’s final speech. Polls show that more than half of Americans view him favorably, though numbers are more split on whether they are better off because of Obama.
Thousands wait in the cold for ticket to Pres. Obama’s farewell speech in Chicago https://t.co/9Hn6wIKYPx pic.twitter.com/jvrt7BeL7m
— ABC News (@ABC) January 8, 2017
While Obama and his advisers have given a preview of a speech focused on accomplishments, there are hints that he will issue a warning of sorts to incoming president Donald Trump. Senior adviser Valerie Jarrett told reporters on Monday that it is “not a victory lap speech.”
“His intention is to motivate people to want to get involved and fight for their democracy,” Jarrett said. “The major focus on the speech isn’t going to be reflecting back on how far we’ve come over the last eight years, but really looking forward and how we take the accomplishments, many (of which) through the hard work and grit of the American people came to fruition, and build on that going forward.”
Those who want to watch Barack Obama’s final speech live online can click here for streaming video from CBS News.
[Featured Image by Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP Images]
