Jonathan Bernstein, Columnist

What Went Wrong With Obama's Farewell Address

His dire warning was mostly lost in a long, split-personality speech.

January 11, 2017 at 4:33 AM UTC

Jonathan Bernstein is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering politics. A former professor of political science at the University of Texas at San Antonio, he wrote A Plain Blog About Politics.

Coming soon: Citizen Obama.
Photographer: Scott Olson/Getty Images

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Barack Obama's farewell as president to the nation was, alas, perhaps the biggest misfire of his public career. Which is too bad, because there was a terrific speech in there somewhere trying to get out.

I'll start with what went wrong.