President Obama earned laughter and applause from an unlikely quarter – Republicans – by touching on two presidential races he solidly won at the conservative party’s expense.
Growing ruminative toward the end of his State of the Union speech, Obama reflected on his six years in office, and the decade since the 2004 speech that lifted him to national prominence. He urged the parties to abandon their most partisan politics and called for Americans to join him – and then he reached an unintended applause line that the members of the Grand Old Party could not resist: “I have no more campaigns to run.”
Between the chuckles heard in the Republican applause, Obama delivered a riposte from off the script: “I know, because I won both of ‘em.”
Democrats, the press, guests and even a few Republicans let loose with laughter, relieving the tension, and Obama carried on: “My only agenda for the next two years is the same as the one I’ve had since the day I swore an oath on the steps of this Capitol – to do what I believe is best for America.”
The Obamas have not said precisely what they plan to do after the president’s term ends in January 2017. Friends and former colleagues of the family have said they may return to New York, where Obama attended Columbia University and lived in the 1980s. Hawaii and Chicago – respectively his birthplace and the proving grounds of his political career – hope to be home to the Obama’s future presidential library.
#IKnowBecauseIWonBothOfThem pic.twitter.com/wps984BT2H
— darth™ (@darth) January 21, 2015
