By Michael Hernandez
WASHINGTON
President Barack Obama saw little reason for pessimism Friday during his final 2014 press conference, hailing the country’s leadership in major international crises and gains in the American economy.
On the list of this year’s foreign policy accomplishments, Obama ticked off American leadership in the Ebola fight, the anti-ISIL coalition, efforts to penalize Russia for its actions in Ukraine, climate change, and he emphasized the importance of the U.S.’s diplomatic opening with Cuba.
But it was on the economic front that Obama had some of his most upbeat comments.
“Take any metric that you want, America's resurgence is real. We are better off,” he said. “I've always said that recovering from the crisis of 2008 was our first order of business. And on that business, America's outperformed all of our other competitors.”
The first family will depart later Friday for a 17-day Christmas vacation in Hawaii. But when Obama returns in January, he will be greeted by a Capitol Hill dominated by Republican lawmakers – a first in his time as president.
Obama said that in conversations with House Speaker John Boehner and soon-to-be Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, he got the impression “that they are serious about wanting to get some things done. The tax area is one area where we can get things done.”
He cautioned, however, that “the devil's in the details.”
And indeed, Obama threatened a veto of any legislation that seeks to rollback his landmark health care reform, or financial regulations put in place after the 2008 economic crisis.
“I'm confident that I'll be able to uphold vetoes of those types of provisions,” he said.
Turning his attention to race relations, the president touched on the perceptions in black and minority communities. Months of sporadic civil unrest following high-profile cases of white police officers not charged in the deaths of unarmed blacks have brought the issue to national attention.
Obama said that, like most of America, black America "is better off now than it was when I came into office."
But he added that work remains to be done.
"The gap between income and wealth of white and black America persists, and we've got more work to do on that front," he said. "I've been consistent in saying that, you know, this is a legacy of a troubled racial past, Jim Crow and slavery. That's not an excuse for black folks, and I think the overall majority of good black people understand it's not an excuse."
This year’s press conference was unusual in two ways – it focused on a comparatively narrow set of subjects, and it featured questions solely from female journalists.
Reporters did not ask about the U.S.’s anti-ISIL efforts, Russia, Syria, or the Iranian nuclear program - dodging issues that are likely to be crucial in the year ahead.
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