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Former President Barack Obama said during the dedication of his presidential center in Chicago on Thursday that America’s Founders fell “terribly short” of the Declaration of Independence’s promise, while casting the nation’s story as one of generations coming together to make the union “more perfect.”
“The success of this experiment was never a given,” Obama said in his speech, referring to the nation’s founding just days before America celebrates its 250th anniversary on the 4th of July.
“In forming our union, the founders fell terribly short of the Declaration’s promise, leaving slavery intact, allowing states to restrict the franchise to white men who owned property. But in drafting a Constitution and a Bill of rights, they did have the foresight, the genius, to provide us with a framework that allows each generation to make our union more perfect.”
The 44th president devoted much of his speech Thursday to outlining the work he believes America still has ahead, echoing themes he has emphasized in past appearances on the campaign trail and during his time in the White House.
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While the Obama Presidential Center officially opens to the public Friday, the dedication featured a slew of former diplomats, officials and celebrities, such as former Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau, Oprah Winfrey, Nancy Pelosi, Kamala Harris, Steven Spielberg, Hillary Clinton, and former Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Joe Biden.
“And over more than two centuries, through petitions and protests, marches and strikes, moral appeals from the pulpit and conversations at the family dinner table – men and women from all walks of life, of every color, every faith, every region took up the cause of democracy and made it their own. Until, we the people, came to include not just some of us, but all of us. And that’s why the story we tell in this building begins not with Michelle’s origins or my origins, but with our nation’s,” he continued.
Obama also used the speech to champion what he described as shared American values and the importance of finding common ground across the political spectrum.
“Every president here today, as different as we are, has tried our best to uphold the values that John McCain and Mitt Romney believed in no less than I did,” said Obama, naming the two Republicans.
“It is our greatest inheritance. The story of America at its best, because it reflects a basic faith in the decency of our fellow citizens and the possibility that, despite all of our differences, we can see each other and understand one another and make common cause together. That’s what I hope every visitor to this center takes away from their experience,” he said.
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The presidential museum features an Oval Office replica, along with America’s founding and civil war artifacts.
Among the historical artifacts featured in the museum are a print of the Declaration of Independence, a pen and ink stand used by Frederick Douglass, Lincoln’s Bible, and a pamphlet by journalist and civil rights activist Ida B. Wells.
The center’s opening Friday follows a decade of planning and construction while facing scrutiny over rising costs, construction delays and public infrastructure spending.
Taxpayers footed hundreds of millions of dollars in public infrastructure costs for Obama’s museum that constructed roads, transit, and utility updates around the campus.
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Overall construction costs were reported to be $830 million in 2021 and have likely climbed past the $1 billion mark.
A recent Fox News Digital investigation identified multiple construction firms claiming losses ranging from hundreds of thousands of dollars to tens of millions.
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