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President Obama closed his presidency on anote of optimism Wednesday, tellinga room of reporters that, despite the worry felt by many of his fellow partisans about the incoming Trump administration,were going to be okay.

In what was scheduled as the final news conference of his presidency, Obama said that after all he has witnessed,he is walking away with a sense of hopefulness about the country and where it is going.

He framed the comments as a description of what he had told his daughters after this year's election, but his remarks, likely to be among his last public statements from the White House, also served as a message to his fellow Democrats.

Many on his side of the aisle have talked in near-apocalyptic tones in recent weeks about the impending Trump administration. Obama was more measured.

I believe in this country, he said. I believe in the American people. I believe that people are more good than bad. I believe tragic things happen. I think there's evil in the world, but I think at the end of the day, if we work hard and if we're true to those things in us that feel true and feel right, that the world gets a little better each time.

That's what this presidency has tried to be about, he said.

The message will likely be his last one in public for a while. Obama said he reserves the right to speak up, especially if what he called America's "core values" come under assault. Short of that, however, he plans now to go into a period of quiet and "not hear [himself] talk so darn much."

Hell devote himself to writing and contemplation, he said, taking time for reflection that he hasnt had under the pressures of the Oval Office.

His departure on Friday comes at a time of anxiety for many of his fellow Democrats. Dozens of Democratic members of Congress are planning to boycott Donald Trumpsinauguration. Womens groups and unions are organizing demonstrations for the coming weekend.

Obama has not repudiated the criticisms he leveled at Trump during the campaign.But since the election,he has also looked for positive things to say, focusing on Trumps willingness to listen to him and, perhaps, to change his mind when persuaded.

On Wednesday, as he took his final round of questions, Obama said he would wait to see whether Trump had accepted any of his thoughts. He alsosaid he was sure he wouldnt be the last nonwhite man to hold the presidency.

I think we're going to see people of merit rise up from every race, faith, corner of this country, because that's America's strength, Obama said. When we have everybody getting a chance and everybody's on the field, we end up being better.

He added:Yeah, we're going to have a woman president. We're going to have a Latino president. And we'll have a Jewish president, a Hindu president. You know, who knows who we're going to have? I suspect we'll have a whole bunch of mixed-up presidents at some point that nobody really knows what to call them.

Much of his optimism, he said, stemmed from watching ayounger generation that is much more open to differences of all kinds.

As evidence, he cited his daughters, Malia and Sasha, one headed tocollege and the other now in high school.

The two have grown up in an environment where they couldnt help but be patriotic, Obama said, to see the countrys flaws and to feel a sense of responsibility to fix them.

And they were well-aware of their parents concerns about Trump and the movement behind him. Their father campaigned hard for fellow Democrat Hillary Clinton, and their mother delivered a speech in October in which she addressed Trumps vulgar words about women, disclosed on a videotape,saying she was shaken to [her] coreby his remarks.

They were disappointed, Obama said. They paid attention to what their mom said during the campaign and believed it because it's consistent with what we have tried to teach them in our household, and what I've tried to model as a father with their mom, and what we've asked them to expect from future boyfriends or spouses.

Still, he said, his daughters hadnt gotten cynical.

They have not assumed because their side didn't win, or because some of the values that they care about don't seem as if they were vindicated, that automatically America has somehow rejected them or rejected their values, he said.

Instead, they have appreciated the fact that this is a big, complicated country, and democracy is messy;it doesn't always work exactly the way you might want. It doesn't guarantee certain outcomes, he said.

But, he said, his daughters know that there's a core decency to this country and that they got to be a part of lifting that up. And I expect they will be.

For months, Obama has said he would relish the moment when he could set aside the responsibilities of governingand return to thinking and analyzing and talking about the country like a citizen. He told friends he looked forward to being able to see the world not through the gloom and doom of the presidential daily briefing.

That moment seemed to dawn at the end of the news conference Wednesdayas he was channeling the optimism of Malia and Sasha Obama.

Sometimes I get mad and frustrated like everybody else does, but at my core, I think we're going to be OK, he said. We just have to fight for it;we have to work for it and not take it for granted.

christi.parsons@latimes.com

Twitter: @cparsons

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President Obama's parting message: Hope - Los Angeles Times

President Obama said Wednesday that his administration has warned President-elect Donald Trumps team that big policy shifts come with consequences and suggested that moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem could have explosive results.

"When sudden unilateral moves are made that speak to some of the core issues and sensitivities of either side, that can be explosive," Obama said at his last news conference as commander-in-chief, Reuters reported.

Trump, like some of his predecessors, has vowed to move the American embassy to Jerusalem, a politically charged act that would anger Palestinians who want east Jerusalem as part of their sovereign territory. The move would also distance the U.S. from most of the international community, including its closest allies in Western Europe and the Arab world.

Trumps next ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, supports Israeli settlements and other changes to U.S. policies in the region.

Friedman said he looked forward to carrying out his duties from "the U.S. embassy in Israel's eternal capital, Jerusalem," even though the embassy is in Tel Aviv. Trump advisers have said that the president-elect will follow through on his call for moving the embassy.

"He has made that promise," Kellyanne Conway told reporters Thursday. "I can guarantee you, just generally, he's a man who is going to accomplish many things very quickly."

Obama said that he is worried that the chances of a two-state solution were dimming. He has been critical of the Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

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Obama suggests that moving US Embassy to Jerusalem could be 'explosive' - Fox News

Barack Obama leaves office Friday with 6 in 10 Americans approving of his job performance, capping a steady rise that vaults him above the average final mark for modern presidents, a new Washington Post-ABC News poll finds.

Obama's high-note finish comes with plenty of dissonance, including persistent pessimism about the nation's direction and deep divisions after Donald Trump's victory in last year's presidential race after campaigning strongly against Obama's policies.

Yet Americans grew significantly more positive about Obama's presidency through the acidic 2016 campaign asperceptions of the economy improved. The president'sapproval ratings were underwater in July 2015, when 45 percent approved and 50 percent disapproved of his performance. But hisoverall approval grew to a steady 50 percent by January 2016, and rose again to 56 percent in June, never falling below the mid-50s through the fall campaign.

The latest Post-ABC poll shows Obama hitting 60 percent approval, with 38 percent disapproving his highest mark since June ofhis first year in office, when 65 percent approved of him. Thelatest pollfinds 61 percent approve of Obama's handling of the economy, whilea smaller 53 percent approvehow he has handled the threat of terrorism and 52 percentrate him positively for handling health care.

Partisanship was the principal factor in ratings of Obama throughout his presidency. Republicans soured on his performance by his second month in office, and Democrats widely approved throughout his two terms. Independents are largely responsible for Obama's strong finish, as approval climbed from 44 percent at the start of 2016 to 61 percent in the latest poll.

Another factor that may have boosted Obama: the improvement in ratings of the national economy.

Only 5 percent of Americans said the economy was excellent or good when Obama took the oath of office, and this number did not grow beyond 20 percent during his first term. But in the last few years, the share of Americans with positive ratings of the economy has more than doubled to 51 percent in this month's survey, the highest level tracked by Post-ABC polls during his tenure. Very few say the economy is in excellent condition (6 percent), and nearly half rate it negatively. But the share of people saying the economy is poor has dropped from 62 percent in early 2009 to 14 percent today.

How Obama's ratings stack up historically

Obama's final job approval mark is well above the 50 percent average for presidents from Franklin Roosevelt onward, and nearly twice as high as the 33 percent approval of his immediate predecessor, George W. Bush, as he left office in 2009.

Roosevelt, Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan all held higher approval marks in final polls while in office than Obama does today. Dwight Eisenhower also had a slightly more positive image than Obama, with disapproval 10 points lower than Obama's despite trailing the current president by one point in positive marks. Besides Bush, Obama's final rating is clearly higher than those of George H.W. Bush, Lyndon Johnson, Jimmy Carter, Harry Truman and Richard Nixon.

Obama's closest analog is Gerald Ford, whose 53-32 approve-disapprove rating (+21) closely resembles Obama's +22 margin of approval and disapproval.

The Post-ABC poll asked respondents to predict how history will judge Obama in the long run, and 51 percent said they think Obama will go down in history as an outstanding or above-average president. One-quarter said he will be remembered as average, while another 25 percent said he will rank as below average or poor. By comparison, a similar 47 percent thought Clinton would be remembered as above average, while 36 percent said this of George H.W. Bush and 16 percent said the same of George W. Bush.

Little satisfaction with nation's direction

Americans have been pessimistic about the country's future for much of the past four decades, and Obama's hope-centered campaign aimed to counterthis long-running pessimism.

The presidentdid appear to inspire optimism during his first year, with as many as 50 percent saying the country was headed in the right direction, up from single digits the previous fall among registered voters and the highest level since 2003. But pessimism clawed back during the next two years, peaking after the Standard & Poor's credit downgrade when 77 percent said the country was on the wrong track.

Optimism among Democrats helped boost the right direction ratings into the low 40s during Obama's reelection campaign, but they have yet to reach that level again. Today, only 29 percent say the country is headed in the right direction, while 63 percent see it as on the wrong track.

One major shift that has already occurred since Trump's presidential victory is a flip in the partisan divide on this question. Today, Republicans are 26 points more likely than Democrats to say the country is headed in the right direction (45 percent vs. 19 percent). Last July, Democrats were 37 points more likely to express optimism about the country's direction (45 percent vs. 8 percent).

If Obama's presidency is any guide, that split will grow even bigger once Trump takes office.

The Washington Post-ABC News poll was conducted by telephone Jan. 12-15, 2017, among a random national sample of 1,005 adults, including landline and cellphone respondents. Overall results have a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.

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President Obama is leaving office on a very high note - Washington Post

New York Times

Obama Understood the Power of Art. And He Wanted You to Get It, Too. New York Times Anyone inclined to find joy when a president's taste collides with yours had a lot to choose from with Barack Obama. There was the time he dropped by the Los Angeles garage where the comedian Marc Maron records his podcast or when he sat between the ...

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Obama Understood the Power of Art. And He Wanted You to Get It, Too. - New York Times

Those eight years saw the nation grapple with the worst economic disaster since the Great Depression. The country's response to that crisis helped reshape the economy and the makeup of the political system a few times over. And for every day of those eight years, the nation was at war -- on multiple fronts, against multiple groups for multiple purposes.

All of these momentous changes during Obama's presidency had very real effects on people across the country and the globe. And for each of these real-world impacts, there is a number.

The recession cost many people their livelihood. The following years saw many of those same people gain it back. While part of the drop in unemployment came from people leaving the workforce, enough people have jobs now that, statistically speaking, employment has recovered from the darkest days of the economic crisis.

Due in part to a revolution in domestic fossil fuels and massive oil production overseas, oil and gas have been pretty cheap for some of Obama's presidency.

Here's what the situation looks like.

Following years of upward climb and a rally after President-elect Donald Trump's electoral victory, stocks are near record highs.

Here's stock market performance as of January 3, 2017:

Obama's election coincided with Democratic victories across the nation and the strong 2008 showing built on the party's successes in 2006. But as the years went on, the situation virtually reversed itself. Obama will exit office with the Republican Party resurgent on the state and federal levels.

Deaths from opioid-related overdose deaths have been on the rise. More people are dying from overdoses on heroin and prescription pain medicine like oxycodone and fentanyl.

States with legal marijuana or cannabis products have blossomed under Obama. When he took office, recreational marijuana wasn't legal in any state.

The Affordable Care Act set aside funding for states to expand Medicaid -- a government health care program for the poorest Americans. But the process became something of a tussle with state governments and many of their Republican leaders. By the end of Obama's presidency, only the slim majority of states had opted to expand Medicaid.

As the economy recovered and the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, reformed the health care market, more people had health insurance coverage.

Here's the total percentage of people without insurance, according to the US Census Bureau's American Community Survey:

By the end of Obama's presidency, government debt had nearly doubled to about $20 trillion.

Trump said during his campaign that he'd create a special force to deport undocumented immigrants. Although Obama criticized Trump's immigration proposals, he detained and deported millions of men, women and children. Obama's administration deported the people -- 434,015 -- in 2013.

The US has grown more unequal over the past few decades, including the past eight years.

One commonly cited measure is the Gini index. The number ranges from zero to 1, and the higher the Gini index is, the more unequal the distribution of income is.

According to the Census, it was .469 in 2009 and .4817 in 2017.

The bottom half of earners have seen their pre-tax incomes fall while the highest earners have seen a fairly steady rise.

Debate abounds over how and why incomes vary by gender and whether the wage gap can fairly be said to exist. However, men and women, as well as people of different races, all have much different pay.

Following the dips in growth that marked the recession, the economy slowly and steadily rebounded. Many, including Trump, have said observed rates of growth are far too low.

Hate crime incidents in the US neared 6,000 in both 2013 and 2015.

The Obama administration created 11.3 million jobs in eight years, and the economy added jobs for 75 straight months, a record that totals 6 years.

More jobs were created under Obama than under George W. Bush, who only created 2.1 million jobs. However, Obama fell short of Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan, who saw 22.9 million and 15.9 million jobs created, respectively, under their presidencies.

The countries he hosted include:

When he was elected in 2008, 28,223,000 people were receiving food stamps.

In 2016, 44,219,000 people received food stamps -- an increase of nearly 16 million people.

Although Obama has vastly reduced the number of troops in Afghanistan during his time in office, he has failed to withdraw all American troops from the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan.

As of December 2016, there were still 9,800 troops left.

As of January 2017, 45 prisoners remain and 171 have been released under Obama.

Nine of the 171 have been "confirmed" to have returned to terrorist activities, according to a government report.

Obama had pledged to close the controversial center within one year in an executive order he signed shortly after his inauguration in January 2009.

Obama hit the links 333 times since assuming the presidency, according to CBS News' Mark Knoller, the unofficial White House statistician who pledged to track each and every round played by the commander in chief.

While his critics have said this is too many rounds to play, his figure doesn't come close to the amount played by Woodrow Wilson, who is said to have played 1,200 rounds while President.

In 2015, the median was $56,516, which was a 5.2% increase from 2014. This was also the first increase in median income since 2007, before the economic crash.

In December 2016, the index was a high 113.7 -- a stark difference to when fell as low as 25 during the recession, when Obama took office.

The poverty rate in the United States in 2015 was 13.5%. This is down 1.2 percentage points from 14.8% in 2014. In 2015, there were 43.1 million people in poverty, 3.5 million fewer than in 2014.

The birth rate fell to 59.8 births per 1,000 women in 2016 under Obama.

The price of milk decreased under Obama from $3.58/gallon when he took office in January 2009 to $3.28/gallon as of November 2016.

CNN's Kevin Liptak, a White House reporter, has kept a running tally of Obama's acts of clemency -- the president's decisions to pardon or commute criminal sentences.

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44 ways to judge the Obama era - CNN International