Yep

Yep. It’s the end of an era.
No other way to put it.

New day dawning in our great nation,
time to shift gears.

New man at the helm.

Now I know there are those will say. . . .
Look--I've heard what some folks are sayin’.

That we made mistakes.

But time and tide waits for no man.
That's the truth.

Fact is we had tough decisions to make.

And we made those decisions.

We deliberated long and hard beforehand too,
I can tell you that.

Some of those meetings dragged on
more than an hour.

Course I can’t speak for everyone here,
but I myself, I get kinda antsy sittin' there.

Sitting there while they go at it,
While they all keep goin' over
the same old ground,
all of 'em saying the same thing
over and over in different ways.

So finally I had to take a stand.
You would of too.

No sense talkin’ everything
till you're blue in the face,
that’s what I say.

Besides, it was me
the people of this great nation
put there.

It was me at the head of that table.

And I'm not one to shirk responsibility.
No, sir.
Least not any more.

Cuz I'd been there, done that.

I'd taken that path,
and finally said,
"No, not for me.
Not any more thank you."

Cuz I was given a little lift up.

A little glimpse of the light.
A little helping hand
from One who doesn't let you down.

And I wasn't about let the American people down either.

So there I was,
sittin' there at the head of the table,
and a decision had to be made.

And I'd be darned if I wouldn't make it.

Course some of 'em sometimes
would start in with their "buts"
and their "howevers" and all.

But one thing I'm not is a man who listens
to these buts and howevers.

Never have been.

No, I'm a decider.

And most of the time
I'd already decided.

That's what I'd tell 'em too.

"Stop your hemmin' and hawin'.
I've already decided!"

Boy, once they heard that
they knew the course would be set.
It’d be set right there.

They knew from then on
we'd stay the course too.

They knew it cuz by then they knew
who was sittin' at the head of that table.

I was.

And why was that?

Cuz the American people put me there,
that's why.

It’s the wisdom of democracy.
The wisdom of the people decides,
and you get what you get.

Fact is we were answering to a Higher Authority,
hearing a voice from a higher Whirlwind.

And if that voice is on your side,
then no man can stand against you,
am I right?

I've said it before and I'll say it again:
History will judge how we did.

Right now the talk may be one way,
but history will eventually weed and sift things
and the talk might come out another way.

You never can tell.

So folks shouldn’t be so hasty to judge.
Cuz history is not into second-guessing.

But now it’s time to turn a page.

Yep. It’s time we moved on to other things.

Cuz now the reins are going to another man.
Just have to accept it.

And he's a good man too,
a man with a smart wife
and two beautiful kids.

I wish him the best,
I reallly do.

I know he'll have to make tough decisions
like I did.

And sit through those meetings
like I did.

And I know that finally he'll have to decide.

Cuz that's what we're made of,
men like him and me.

We're deciders.

But I know he'll face disappointments too,
let me tell you.

Cuz when you're sitting there
on the highest chair in the land,
disappointments are sure to come.

People let you down.

They sure let us down,
Dick and Don and Condi and I.

Us in the loop, I mean.

Folks didn't always do things they should have.

A lot of folks, to tell the truth.

It's something that isn't pleasant to talk about,
but there it is.

They let us down.

Saddam sure let us down.

You can't count on that guy for anything.

I always told the American people
he was a liar, he couldn't be trusted.

And I was right.

There he was
sayin' he didn't have any more WMD
and of course we knew
he had to be lying.

But go figure--
that was the one damn thing he wasn't lyin' about!

We thought he'd at least have
some of the stuff around.

Course we knew he couldn't have
all the stuff we were saying.

But at least he had to have some.

But look--the bastard couldn't even be trusted
to lie about the one thing
he should of lied about.

So in a way he was actually lying by not lying,
see?

They're slippery, those guys.

Comes with the turf over there.

Most of 'em,
you can't even trust 'em to lie straight.

But it's not just Saddam I'm talkin' about.
Nope.

Cuz some of the folks here at home,
they let us down too.

Yes, our own people,
fellow Americans.

Like some of the folks on Wall Street.

Folks we thought we could trust.

I mean, when we pushed through
all that financial deregulation.

When we pushed that through--
got rid of some of the old rules.

It was to make the economy stronger,
not to give the green light
to every scheme
these clowns could cook up.

Along with the freedom of fewer regulations
should come some responsibility, am I right?

But that's not how these folks saw it.

These CEOs
--who'd of thought?--
they all started behavin' right off
like their main business in life
was making money.

It's crazy what some of 'em got up to.

The more you look into it--
makes your head spin.

So: disappointment.
That's how it makes you feel.

My successor,
as I've already said,
I'm sure he'll find some of the same disappointments
I did.

Because people don't do what you expect.

That's a fact,
and it's one lesson I've learned
from my time in this great office.

But still we got to keep on.
Have to keep on fighting the good fight.

We have to keep fighting
even though we're switchin' gears.

And we are switchin' gears here,
make no mistake.

We're turnin' a new page.

Yep.

It's a proud time for our nation,
I really believe that.
It’s a time of new beginnings.

And I'm confident we'll meet the challenges
like we always have.

Cuz we are a special nation,
a nation that loves liberty
like no other.

We are a blessed nation.

I want you to know
I've always considered it a privilege
to serve as your Supreme Commander in Chief.

But I'm at the end of my show here,
I won't deny it.

This is the last time
I'll be addressing you
as your leader.

We had some good times,
we had some bad times.

It was a heckuva show
we had together, wasn't it?

We won't be forgotten any time soon.

And in the end
history will judge
how we did.

But I got to sign off now.

Got to move on.

Tomorrow I’ll be handin' the reins
to the next hombre.

Cuz that's the way it is
in America.

So adios and good night.

And God bless ya.

Washington, January 19, 2009