“The embrace of the two friends following the service is heartening and intimate.” – Felix Peckham

Obama’s relationship with his Vice President, Joe Biden, has been particularly awe-inspiring. There is a stark disparity with the insincerity of the image presented by Obama’s political contemporaries. Take David Cameron’s relationship with his own Biden: Boris Johnson, both of whom have a Machiavellian reputation that they’ve cultivated through Eton, Oxford, the Bullingdon Club – the most reprehensible anecdote for British elitism – straight into Parliament. Their strained relationship is painful to watch. My favourite Obama moment, therefore, occurred at a church in Delaware, on an innocuous day in June 2015. Biden was bidding farewell to his son, Beau, who had died from brain cancer. Obama’s eulogy was typical of his graceful and emotional rhetorical style. The embrace of the two friends following the service is heartening and intimate. At the time there was little way of predicting the dark political clouds on the horizon. Looking back on this scene retrospectively makes me wistful and sad. As Obama said in Hunter’s eulogy: “Without love, life can be cruel and it can be cold.” Obama’s relationship with his Vice President demonstrated the positivity and love that politics can embrace. Tragically, Americans may well be about to witness the cold and cruel side that life can offer.

Best of friends: Joe Biden and Barack Obama, 2009White House/FLIKR

“We can, we did and we will.” –  Holly Platt-Higgins

On the 4th of November in 2008, I was sitting on the floor with my dad and watching Obama becoming President-Elect of the United States. This was tangibly historic. For so many people, for a whole generation, for my twelve-year-old-self, Obama being elected was emblematic of progress.

It was an election night that embodied a re-invigoration of democracy. As Obama said, “because of what we did, on this night, change has come to America.” Hope was palpable as an inspiring African-American from Honolulu secured his seat in the White House. 

Obama's decisions are freely and rightly up for debate, but it cannot be contested that his 2008 election was a moment of ‘yes we can, yes we did’. The camera moved over faces in the crowd and you could see not just the tears in people’s eyes, but the pride and the excitement surrounding them.

In the challenges that lie ahead, especially for many Americans, I think it’s important to look at the legacy Barack Obama has left behind and recognise that integrity and hard-work and honesty can prevail, in life and in politics. We can, we did and we will.

“This speech defines the Obama presidency” – Ella Hatfield

In March 2008, Obama gave the ‘More Perfect Union’ speech, in which he spoke about the problems that confront us all, universally: terrorism, climate change, economic crisis, war, unemployment and education. He spoke about a history of racial discrimination and inequalities, and the contemporary impacts of this. He spoke about anger and bitterness, division and conflict. Through this speech, Obama instilled hope in a more just, equal, prosperous and sustainable future.

In the speech, Obama discusses “the complexities of race” which haven’t yet been worked through in America, and acknowledges the potential for his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination to be seen, analysed and judged only on racial terms. But ultimately Obama calls for unity, progress and hope.

To me, this speech defines the Obama presidency. Obama said that “out of many, we are truly one” and that “we cannot solve the challenges of our time unless we solve them together, unless we perfect our union”: this is what I will hold onto now, at the end of the Obama presidency.

“I’ll miss that comic relief” – Gracelin Baskaran

Imagine if Barack Obama had five kids with three women? Oh, the names he would have been called. Player? Pimp? Despite being a honest and transparent leader who maintained his integrity throughout,  Obama was often insulted for being the first black man to fill the Oval Office. He was accused of being an immigrant with a fake birth certificate, of being Muslim and conspiring with ISIS, and of being a police hater for not taking a stance against the Black Lives Matter movement. But Obama handled each insult with such class and dignity… and humour.

In April 2011, Trump was considered a potential Republican Challenger and invited to a state dinner at the White House. He had made repeated claims that Obama was born overseas, and hence ineligible to be president. 

Obama didn’t turn to Twitter insults. Instead, after releasing the long form of his birth certificate, he stood up at the state dinner and teased Trump. “No-one is happier to put this birth certificate matter to rest than the Donald,” he said, “and that’s because he can finally get back to focusing on the issues that matter. Like, did we fake the moon landing? What really happened in Roswell? And where are Biggie and Tupac?”

I don’t know where Tupac is, but I’ll miss that comic relief.