President Obama gave his farewell address in Chicago on Tuesday, and brought himself (and others) to tears with tributes to his veep and first lady. The most interesting part of the address was the amount of time he dedicated to detailing what he sees as potential threats to our democracy (most of which come from within): “Without some common baseline of facts, without a willingness to admit new information and concede that your opponent might be making a fair point, and that science and reason matter, then we’re going to keep talking past each other. And we’ll make common ground and compromise impossible.”

+ As we reach the end of the Obama era, I return to its beginning. Back at the 2004 Convention, before the speech that put him on the national stage, Obama spoke to a smaller group. It was at the Blogger’s Breakfast.