After eight years in office, Barack Obama will exit the Oval Office next Tuesday and leave behind a legacy that may not yet be clearly understood.
And as he leaves, goodbye doesn’t seem to capture the sense of what many well-wishers want to convey. Thank you may fall short, too. In this case, the formal Spanish farewell may be most appropriate.
As the swearing-in of a new president draws near, the contrasts between the two men that will change places next week seem startling. Out goes the smooth speaking, history-making President that became the first non-white person to be Command-in-Chief.
In will come the first-time candidate, former reality star that shattered every convention for a presidential candidate. He’s brash, he’s confrontational, and he’s hard to pin down on policies.
The contrasts are not only in their politics, but in their nature.
For all the disagreements that some may have with Barack Obama’s policies, it’s difficult to argue that he’s not inspiring. He’s a man born of a white American mother and a black African father. He was raised by an Indonesian step-father, and later by his white grandparents from Kansas. He was a mixed-race kid in a predominately white world he would later lead.
Obama went on to study at Columbia and Harvard, two of the country’s leading universities. He became a lawyer and politician, before running for and losing a congressional race in 2000.
That year, Obama was turned away from receptions during the 2000 Democratic Convention in Los Angeles he attended as a delegate because he didn’t have VIP credentials. And broke from spending his own money in his failed campaign, his credit card was declined when he tried to rent a car in LA.
But he didn’t quit.
Just two years later, he ran a long-shot campaign for US Senate against 14 other candidates, and won a landslide primary election victory in June 2004.  That summer, Obama delivered the keynote speech at the 2004 Democratic Convention and instantly became a rising national political figure.
A young black man named Barack Hussein Obama.
And just three years later, he had the courage and audacity to run for the highest office in the land. In 2008, as we now all know, Obama faced off against Senator John McCann and won the presidency.
From day one in the White House, Barack Obama was confronted with a hostile Republican Congress where their leaders publicly stated their top priority was to deny Obama a second term.
They ridiculed his policies. They questioned his faith. They called him un-American. It was under those circumstances that the first African-American to be President began his tenure.
Instead of celebrating the fulfillment of the American promise that all men are created equal, political rivalries cast a dark shadow on Obama’s achievement. His election wasn’t just a campaign victory for him, it was a victory for all American in that it proved that a man could be judged by the content of his character, not by the color of his skin.
Barack Obama inherited the worst economic conditions since the Great Depression. The economy had collapsed under the weight of bad bank debt. Millions were losing their jobs, their homes, and their life savings. A global recession was threatening to take down banks that were thought too big to fail.
Now eight years later, the economy is strong, the stock market is at record levels, unemployment is at 10-year lows, and home values have rebounded. Millions of people that lacked health care are now covered. We have seen the longest economic boom since World War II. And we saw the capture of the world’s most hunted terrorist.
And Obama completed eight years in office without any personal scandals, without embarrassing plunders, and with grace and dignity. Not bad for a guy that almost quit politics just a few years ago.
Still, political opponents paint a dire picture of the America Obama is leaving behind. In their quest for power, they depict Obama as a failed leader that pushed failed policies. They sought to undermine his achievements. Their ambitions led to the most divisive, destructive political campaign in history.
So, next week, we will inaugurate a new president, Donald Trump. Trump has continued to use the same combative style he popularized on the campaign trail. He derides the press. He dismisses critics. He ignores ethical limits of business conflicts of interests.
Yet, he will be our President. The leader of the free world. And the example for our kids?
We will miss Barack Obama’s calm demeanor, his intellect, and his inspirational example.
He was the epitome of the American dream: He proved that anyone can become President.
Now Donald Trump has taken that to the absurd extreme.
Adiós President Obama. We will miss you. God speed.