Obama ends on a note of optimism

This is it: U.S. President Barack Obama waves goodbye after his final press conference at the White House in Washington on Wednesday.

The final question put by a journalist to Barack Obama during his presidency merged the political with the personal.

So how, Mr. Obama was asked at his last press conference on Wednesday, did Malia (18) and Sasha (15) react to Donald Trump’s victory in the presidential election?

Teaching kids resilience

Mr. Obama’s answer revealed something about his own attitude and, perhaps, his parting advice to an uncertain nation and world.

“What we’ve also tried to teach them is resilience, and we’ve tried to teach them hope,” he said. “And that tended to be their attitude.”

Mr. Obama has been criticised by rights groups for using the 1917 Espionage Act to prosecute more whistleblowers than all previous administrations combined. But on Wednesday, he sought to position himself as a defender of the free press.

Mr. Trump’s aides have hinted that the press might be moved out of the west wing, meaning that Wednesday’s conference would be the last of its kind.

Mr. Obama signalled that a threat to press freedom would be one of the “core values” that would move him to break with presidential tradition by speaking out from the retirement.

And despite the bruises of his two terms, Mr. Obama insisted that his original optimistic vision remains intact. He spoke of one day expecting to see a woman President, a Latino President, a Jewish President, a Hindu President and many others. — The Guardian