WASHINGTON _ President Barack Obama offered a parting message of hope in his final White House news conference Wednesday, saying that although he recognizes there is evil in the world, "I think we're going to be OK."
"I believe that tragic things happen," he said. But when people work hard, "the world gets a little better each time.
"That's what this presidency is about," he said. "This is what I really believe at my core. I think we're going to be OK. We just have to fight for it."
Although he framed them as a description of what he had told his daughters after this year's election, Obama's comments, likely to be among his last public statements from the White House, served as a message to his fellow Democrats.
Many on his side of the aisle have talked in near-apocalyptic tones in recent weeks about the impending administration of President-elect Donald Trump. Obama was more measured.
"I believe in this country. I believe in the American people. I believe that people are more good than bad," he said. "The only thing that's the end of the world is the end of the world."
Obama said he will speak out in the future in certain cases, especially if he sees Americans' "core values" under assault. Short of that, however, he said he needs to be quiet for a while and "not hear myself talk so darn much."
On the way out, though, he offered up his daughters Malia and Sasha as an example to follow. They were "disappointed" with the outcome of the election, the president said, adding that they had heeded their mother's concerns about some of the negative things being said on the campaign trail.
But they haven't become cynical, the president said, and they have not assumed that because their side didn't win that America had rejected them or their values.
"And in that sense, he said, "they are representative of this generation that makes me really optimistic."
