By Editor-in-Chief Kathy Wray Coleman, a-24-year journalist who trained at the Call and Post Newspaper in Cleveland, Ohio for 17 years, and who interviewed now President Barack Obama one-on-one when he was campaigning for president. As to the Obama interview, CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE AT CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM, OHIO'S LEADER IN BLACK DIGITAL NEWS. (Note: A former biology teacher and longtime Cleveland activist, Coleman is the most read reporter in Ohio on Google Plus with some 3.2 million views).
CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM-CLEVELAND, Ohio- President Barack Obama (pictured), the nation's first Black president and a Democrat who will leave office in January after serving two four-year terms, gave his first public address since GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump last week beat Hillary Clinton to become his successor and the country's new chief executive. CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE ON TRUMP WINNING THE PRESIDENCY OVER HILLARY CLINTON AT CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM, OHIO'S LEADER IN BLACK DIGITAL NEWS
"My team stands ready to accelerate in the next step," said Obama to a capacity audience of reporters, televised remarks that outlined his successes as president, and was a response to the much anticipated question of his post-election feelings about Trump, whom he had previously branded "unfit to be president."
But the president, who vigorously campaigned for Clinton, the Democratic nominee for president, and a former secretary of state, was diplomatic, and said that Trump deserves a chance to succeed.
He, did, however, question Trump's temperament, and said that the real estate mogul is more pragmatic than ideological, and that Trump's campaign promises were often sound bites that "don't always translate into good policy."
And he said that it would be disingenuous to suggest that he does not have a problem with a Trump presidency.
"Do I have concerns?" asked Obama. "Absolutely."
Obama said that Trump "is going to try the best he can to make sure he delivers."
That could mean different things to different people.
Trump has pledged to repeal Obamacare, and to nominate a conservative to the Supreme Court to replace Antonin Scalia.
Among other policy changes, he has vowed to seek to roll back Roe v Wade, the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision that made abortion legal in America, and wants to revise NATO.
Trump wants to expand educational choice over the objection of Democrats and teachers unions, and his tax plan, says Obama, benefits the rich to the detriment of the middle class and the poor.
Suggesting that Trump is more talk than action, Obama accused the billionaire businessman that has never held public office of having fewer policy prescriptions than he had.
As to his meeting with the president-elect after Tuesday's election, a close election in fact, and where Clinton won the popular vote but lost the Electoral College, Obama did not mesh words.
He said that Trump is gregarious, likes to mix things up, and loves "vigorous debate."
The president made a plea regarding the Affordable Care Act, a federal law that Republicans, and some Democrats, hate and want gone.
More that 20 million people now have health insurance through Obamacare, Obama said. And if Congressional Republicans can do better, he said "more power to em."
Obama said that unemployment is down, foreign relations have improved, there are more jobs than in decades, and that the likelihood of Iran securing a nuclear weapon has been minimized via the Iran Nuclear Deal.
The president touched on Syria, immigration reform, clean energy, national security, the NATO deal, and the Trans- Pacific Partnership deal, which, if Republicans have their way, will be eliminated in the new congress.
In short, Obama said that Americans are better off than they were before he assumed the helm of the presidency.
"We are indisputably in a stronger position than we were when I came in eight years ago," said Obama. "Our work has helped us stabilize a global economy."
While Trump has softened to some degree on his stance on immigration since winning the election, he still wants sweeping changes, and mass deportation.
In response, Obama said during his speech on Monday that the incoming Trump administration should "think long and hard before they endanger the status of American kids."
Those kids, said Obama, did not themselves violate immigration mandates, and "should not have to start hiding again."
In June the Supreme Court, via a 4-4 tie, refused to revive relief programs authorized by the Obama administration for some $4 million undocumented immigrants slated for deportation following an appeals court ruling that blocked the initiative.
Acknowledging defeat following Clinton's devastating election loss on Tuesday, the president faced the obvious regarding the state of affairs of the Democratic Party, and its loss of power.
"When your team loses everybody gets deflated, and it's hard and challenging," said Obama, adding that it is clearly necessary that the Democrats, who do not control either the Senate or the House of Representatives, and have now lost the White House to the Republicans "go through reflection."
(www.clevelandurbannews.com) / (www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com). Ohio's most read Black digital newspaper and Black blog.Tel: (216) 659-0473 and Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com