When Election Day was upon us, the candidates were doing everything they could to make their platforms as widespread as possible before most people casted their votes. Part of that included hefty endorsements…like one from the President of the United States.
On Friday, November 4th, President Barack Obama took the stage in Charlotte, North Carolina to encourage people to vote for the Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton. My friends and I piled into a car and headed an hour north of campus to hear the leader of the free world speak. As someone who admires President Obama greatly, I was ecstatic; I never imagined I would get to hear him speak in person, especially not while he was still the president. This day was particularly special because it marked 8 years to the day that he was elected the 44th president.
The venue was filled with people of every race, gender and age. In front of me stood an elderly man wearing a Chicago Cubs bucket hat with his wife; behind me was a girl who looked about 10 or 11 wearing a shirt that said “Hello, Mrs. President”. Seeing people from every walk of life come out to see the President was very moving.
For the last 8 years, President Obama has made me extra proud to to be American largely because of his ability to unite people. That was extremely evident by the wide variety of people I saw there. One of the greatest things about him is his ability to laugh at himself: he talked about gas being $2 a gallon, though critics said it would be $6 a gallon under his administration, and he said the age-old line, “Thanks, Obama!”
He poked fun at those of us like myself who were 10 years old in 2008, saying that we were still probably watching the Disney Channel. He told us that every single American, no matter what, pledged allegiance to the same flag and wanted to see it succeed. He spent most of the evening talking about how we’re doing as a country and reflected upon our progress in the last 8 years.
He also implored us not to be cynical about politics and to not be discouraged so that we could make a difference. Whether you love him or you hate him, there is no doubting the man’s ability to get people to listen to what he has to say. He is not perfect, because no one is, but in this speech he demonstrated why we chose to have him as our president for so long: he is smart, honest, and funny, and that’s often all we can ask of our politicians.
Oh, how we’ll miss you, President Obama.