Obama's farewell address
© Michael Ramirez
Most former presidents return to where they came from and fade into the background, re-emerging in the capital mostly for ceremonial occasions. If they've served two full terms, the norm is to express relief, at least publicly, at the lifting of the office's great burdens after eight long years.

George Washington put it this way in his 1796 Farewell Address: "Not unconscious in the outset of the inferiority of my qualifications . . . every day the increasing weight of years admonishes me more and more that the shade of retirement is as necessary to me as it will be welcome."

Mr. Obama is different. If the Constitution allowed it, he most certainly would have sought a third term. In a year-end interview with his former aide David Axelrod, the president said he thought he would have beaten Donald Trump. At the top of his Tuesday farewell speech, the audience chanted "Four more years! Four more years!" His response: "I can't do that"—not eight is enough. Almost an hour later, near the end of his soliloquy, Mr. Obama declared: "I won't stop. In fact, I will be right there with you, as a citizen, for all my remaining days."

If Mr. Obama is not at peace, his worries are well-founded. The achievement he considers most important, ObamaCare, is likely to be dismantled by a Republican-led Congress that never voted for it and has no stake in it, with the consent of a new president who has already signaled he'll make some changes right away through executive action.


Comment: US population overwhelmingly voted ant-establishment candidate Donald Trump. Population will be happy to forget Obama and his destructive legacy.

The Legacy of Obama: Spreading Imperial Death and Destruction Around The Globe


Mr. Obama also fears his aggressive climate-change policies are in danger. His education reforms, trade and defense policies, nuclear pact with Iran, and management of wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria—or lack thereof—are all about to face severe scrutiny and serious revision.

Every former president probably believes in his heart that he can do the job better than the guy in there now. But living in Washington, Mr. Obama is likely to think those thoughts more often than his distant counterparts have. That's why it is unlikely he will stay silent for long once he departs the White House on next week.