President obama is going home. We joined him on air force one for his last trip to chicago as president , to say farewell to the nation. The soundtrack for our day, music from the president s own spotify lists. Tonight youre going to talk to the American People. Right. Is this a hard one . Do you know what youre going to say . I know what im going to say. I have to make sure i get through it properly. You know, when you reflect back on eight years, for all of the highs and the lows, the one thing that is a constant is the incredible dedication of the people who got you there, and who helped you do your job. Everybody from the staff at the white house to the folks who make sure the airplane flies to supporters who would write me notes when things werent going well to the people who would say that the work we did made a difference. So i think that that sense of gratitude that i feel for those folks, i just hope im able to express that. You have flown places on this airplane, over 400 missions, we are told. Right. Whats it like to be on the final flight, or the final trip. The final trip. We get the last flight after the inaugurati inauguration, but this will be my final trip as president. Look, its a nice plane, but what it also does is it brings back a lot of memories about trips that were consequential. This speech, a lot of president s have given their farewell speech, but often from washington, why come back to chicago . We always have reminded ourselves every day that we were inhe white house that we werent we werent here just for the pomp and the circumstances. We were doing the peoples business, and my own career in Public Service started in chicago, and thats where i learned the power of ordinary people coming together and bringing about changes that would make a difference in their lives. Thank you. Well see you on the ground. Chicago. The city he loves that clearly loves him back. In the freezing cold people lined up before dawn for free tickets to his last speech. This is a historic moment. Its literally our last chance to see president barack obama speak. Were going to miss obama. Chicago loves you. Obama ready to go but before his public appearance, a much more private one, he brought us to his favorite chicago diner maloys. My first apartment was a block away at 51st and blackstone. I used to come here for breakfast. These guys didnt pay a lot of attention to me, at the time. Good to see you. How have you been . I should ask for the president ial discount when i come . I dont know about that, they cant afford discount, but the food here is great and the people are wderful and this is a real Gathering Place for folks all around hyde park and all around the south side so of all of the years i was organizing we got good food and it was cheap. And i didnt cook a lot back then. You cook now . I didnt cook a lot now either. There was a point in between when i was doing a lot of cooking. Testing, one, two, three. Sat down to talk about, not about the news of the day, but about his reflections on the last eight years. Lets talk about the journey. It did begin in chicago. Im only going to do this once in the interview, i promise, but i want to show you something, and it was grant park. The road ahead will be long, the climb is steep, we may not get there in one year or even in one term, but america, i have never been more hopeful than i am tonight that we will get there. I promise you, we as a people will get there. Yes, we can yes, we can yes, we can yes, we can yes, we can. Yes, we can. Did you . Yes, we did . You did . Look, if you had told me at the beginning of my presidency, the day after, in fact, me winning the presidency that eight years later the economy would be stabilized, we would have cut unemployment in half from its peak, that the stock market would have recovered, that incomes last year went up for everybody of every age group, every racial group, every demographic. If youd told me that wed provided 20 Million PeopleHealth Insurance that didnt have it before, that weve seen this explosion in clean energy and cut down our carbon emissions, that High School Graduation rates were up at an alltime high. I would have said we did okay. His vision of home was cemented by the years he spent pounding the pavement and talking with people here in the windy city. Im curious now, eight years later, did you draw on that Community Organizer in your presidency . All the time. So i was working with churches. Most of the folks were a lot older than me at the time, and i had to win over their trust, and two things i learned. One was that you have to develop a relationship and you have to listen to people in order to understand what it is that motivates them and concerns them, and the second thing is that once you listen to peoples stories it turns out that people who on the surface seem different actually have common hopes, Common Dreams and common aspirations, and if you can get them to see each other in that way then potentially you can get some things done. Kept you grounded as president to some extent . Always. And that was just the beginning of our extraordinary conversation covering eight years that made history, but didnt always make the progress he promised. Can you remember a moment in which it just struck you that theyre going to fight me at every turn. Well, that happened early. An evening of hard questions. Didnt the recovery, uneach as it was, plant the seeds for the election of donald trump . And stirring reflections. You do get emotional at times. I do. All in all, this is a pretty shameful day for washington. My biggest disappointment as president. I think any of us africanamericans in prominent roles feel this struggle am i being black enough, am i too black. Do you know what im talking about . I know. My staff can tell you i can curse like a sailor behind closed doors sometimes. Sounds like youd like a doover. Well, no. First of all, my wife would leave me. Im the son of a black man from kenya and a white woman from kansas, and so as long as i live i will never forget that in no other country on earth is my story even possible. When the historybooks are written in the first sentence it will say the first africanamerican president. Yeah. There are so many expectations, as it turned out to what that meant. Did you wrestle with that . How would you articulate the expectations that were thrust upon you . I think that its hard to generalize. I think the whole country took some pride, and it was legitimate that we had traveled enough along our journey from slavery and jim crow and discrimination to the point where we could elect someone that looked like me to the highest office in the land. At last my love has come along so i think that pride is something that was a positive. I think it pointed to where we need to go. I think any talk of being a Postracial America after my election was never realistic. I think it was there was a lot of that talk, though. I think, in fact, that talk was not only naive, but i think created some problems down the road because two things happened. Number one, it meant that africanamericans and other minority groups might have felt as if the problems that had built up over centuries, a wealth gap, an education gap and significant poverty that those things could be addressed overnight. On the other hand, among some white voters who sincerely were glad to see that the country had made this breakthrough there was also man an unrealistic notion that somehow, okay, discrimination is over. Is there a third group that just didnt want a black president . Undoubtedly so. No doubt about that, but in the same way that you wouldnt expect in a fouryear span or an eightyear span to undo the entire legacy of race in america. Latitudes dont transform in four years or eight years. It happens over generations and so, sure, there is residual racial prejudice in this society. I know you dont believe that were more divided racially today. No. Historically, youre right, there are historic markers some pretty strong ones. Yeah, there are some pretty strong ones. The fact is i think a lot of people looked at you and said this is the guy that will make the arguments about inequality and hes going to use this platform. I think any of us africanamericans who work in business or prominent roles feel this struggle am i being black enough . Am i too black . You know what im talking about . I think everybody wrestles with the fact that we are americans, and we take great pride in this country that has given us so Many Blessings and the fact that because of the color of our skin we are bound to a history that has often been cruel. You know the struggle im talking about. And so the way i have always resolved this, and i talk to my daughters about this is that my starting point is not to assume the worst in other, but assume the best, to find those areas where it is possible to find Common Ground and hopefully, a generation that has been raised under my presidency will remember how ive talked about these issues in a way thats respectful of everybody. World, keep on turning there was one moment that stood out to a lot of people, it was the reverend pinckney funeral after the massacre and you went fatherer in talking about him, and ill read the quote, maybe we now know the way racial bias can affect us so were guarding not just against racial slurs and were calling johnny back, but not jamal. Jamal wasnt getting called back for that interview five years ago. Why werent you talking about that in that explicit way before . The truth of the matter is there are going to be times when people will listen and times where they wont. There will be times where you get 15 issues and you have to figure out what am i going to be investing the most effort and energy in and where does it make more sense rather than use the bully pulpit and just do the work. This whole week ive been reflecting on this idea of grace. The grace of the families who lost loved ones, the grace that reverend pinckney would preach about in his sermons. This was a moment when i think the entire country recognized not just the evil that had been perpetrated, but also this amazing response on the part of these people in this church who had seen friends and family gunned down. If weigh can fiwe can find t grace, anything is possible. If we can tap that grace anything can change. Can find t anything is possible. If we can tap that grace anything can change. Amazing grace. There were open hearts at that moment. And you were moved to sing amazing grace. Amazing grace, how sweet the sound the interesting thing about the presidency is there arent a lot of things that are spontaneous. A lot of things end up being scripted by necessity, you have to be careful because anything you say can move markets or start wars. But you do look for moments of Human Connection and in some ways those end up being the moments that are the most meaningful. Did you feel pretty free at that moment . You were secondterm president. I think no. I think i was looking at the two daughters of reverend pinckney who were younger than malia and sasha, but it wasnt that long ago when they were in pigtails just like those girls. They were sitting in the front row. May god continue to shed his grace on the United States of america. You have a good game face. You play it cool, but you also learned politics in illinois, in chicago. Do you have a vindictive streak . Uh im so frustrated. I just want to find a used car without getting ripped off. You could start your search at the allnew carfax. Com that might help. Show me the carfax. Now the car you want and the history you need are easy to find. Show me used trucks with one owner. Pretty cool. [laughs] ah. Ahem. Show me the carfax. Start your used car search and get free carfax reports at the allnew carfax. Com. Befi was active. Gia, i was energetic. Then the chronic, widespread pain drained my energy. My doctor said moving more helps ease fibromyalgia pain. He also prescribed lyrica. 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We cant move forward if all we do is tear each other down, and the political incentives as they are today too often rewards that kind of behavior. Thats what gets attention. We can insist as lincoln did, that we are not enemy, but friends. The notion is that this is a more divided country today than it was when you took office. That may or may not be because of you, but many people accept that as fact, do you . What has happened is there have been a couple of trends that occurred during my presidency. First of all, i think the splintering of the media, and the rise of social media means that a lot of people just have one source of information or a handful of places where they go to get news, and it just reenforces whatever biases they already have, and thats true across the ideological everybodys got a louder platform. Everybodys got a louder platform, but they also dont have to Pay Attention to what people who disagree with them think. Americans just lelected a ma who is the polar opposite of you. If thats not divisive, i dont know what is. Whats also true is that the majority of the American People think ive done a good job. The majority of the American People think the issues weve worked on have been the right ones. So part of what we have to do is to figure out how do we get people back in a common conversation as opposed to these narrow, splintered conversations. The election in 2008 brought lofty expectations. So help you god . So help me god. Congratulations, mr. President. It didnt take long for a harsher reality to set in. In 2009 a congressman interrupted the president s speech to a joint session. The reforms i am proposing would not apply to those who are here illegally. You lie you lie. A stunning breach of protocol that foreshadowed a contentious eight years. I think this is beneath the dignity of the white house. Republicans in congress right now have shown over and over theyll do anything to rig the system for those at the top or to try to score political points on me even if the obstruction keeps the system rigged against the middle class. We have suffered no shortage of words in the white house. What is missing is leadership in the white house you had a tough time. You had a tough time getting what you wanted through, and you got a lot of it through. Was there a point, can you remember a moment when it struck you this isnt going to be easy . Theyll fight me at every turn. That happened early. We were in the midst of the worst economic crisis since the great depression, shedding jobs in the month and we put in the recovery act that ended up, most economists will acknowledge, woing the way we wanted it to, but i remember heading up to meet with the Republican Caucus to show them our plan and to solicit input and ideas from them, and as i was driving up my aide reads a statement from john boehner saying were going to oppose the president on this. We hadnt even had the conversation yet. I was on my way to the meeting. How did you react . Well, what it indicated was something that we kept on seeing throughout my presidency, and that was a tactical decision on the part of republicans to say no because their view was because if they said yes and if there was any bipartisan cooperation that that would benefit me politically, and if there wasnt that would hurt me politically particularly at a time when the economy was doing poorly. We could do well in the midterms if it seems washington is dysfunctional at a time when everybody is hurting. Republicans did do well in the midterms and beyond and eventually taking control of congress and a week from now, the white house. Didnt the recovery, uneven as it was that the people on the bottom were slower to recover than the people in the top, didnt that in some ways plant the seeds for the election of donald trump . Well, what is true is that the the ability of Republican Leaders to rile up their base helped along by folks like Rush Limbaugh and some commentators on fox news, i think, created an environment in which Republican Voters would punish republicans from cooperating with me. That hothouse of back and forth argument and sharp partisanship, i think, has been harmful to the country. You have a good game face. You play it cool, but you also learned politics in illinois, in chicago. Do you have a vindictive streak politically . I tell you, my staff and my wife will tell you that that what you see is sort of what you get with me. I tend to be somebody who focuses on what it is that i want to get done as opposed to focusing on whatever grudges have developed. Now, look, my staff will tell you i can curse like a sailor behind closed doors times. There have been a bunch of times when ive been aggravated, but i tend not to personalize politics that much partly because of what i just described. A lot of the republicans, not just early in my presidency, but to this day are decent people who are responding to pressures that theyre feeling. In some case there are some sincere differences on tough issues like abortion where i dont question the fact that they sincerely have a different view on these issues. So what i try to do is i try to get into their mindset and that, i think, dissipates the anger that i have been some time been known to express. I went back and looked at this and forgot how heavy it was. Youre standing in the rose garden, its 2013. All in all, this was a pretty shameful day for washington. My biggest disappointment as president. Everything your family touches sticks with them. Make sure the germs they bring home dont stick around. Use clorox disinfecting products. Because no one kills germs better than clorox. Somehow this has become routine. The reporting is routine. My response here ends up being routine. The conversation in the aftermath of it, weve become numb to this. You do get emotional at times. I do. He gets emot