His last presidential vacation behind him, Barack Obama is entering the closing stretch of his term, an eleventh-hour push to tie up loose ends and put finishing touches on his legacy before handing the reins to President-elect Donald Trump. Obama returns to Washington at midday on Monday from Hawaii with less than three weeks remaining in his presidency. His final days in office will largely be consumed by a bid to protect his endangered health care law, a major farewell speech and the ongoing handover of power to Trump. His speech planned for his hometown of Chicago, on Jan. 10 is expected to be his closing message to the nation, and will be open to the public, according to a notice sent to Obama alumni and obtained by The Associated Press. The trip will likely be Obama's last outside Washington as president and will include a "family reunion" for Obama's former campaign staffers. Obama is also planning last-minute commutations and pardons, White House officials said, in line with his second-term effort to cut sentences for inmates given unduly harsh sentences for drug crimes. Though prominent offenders like former government contractor Edward Snowden and former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich are also asking for leniency, Obama's final acts of clemency are expected to continue to focus on drug offenders whose plight he tried — but failed — to address through criminal justice reform. After taking office eight years ago, Obama and his aides were effusive in their praise for how Obama's predecessor, George W. Bush, helped his team take over the massive bureaucracy that is the federal government. Obama has vowed to pass on the favor to Trump. "The smooth transition of power is chief among priorities," said White House spokesman Eric Schultz. But the transition hasn't been without incident. The two teams have clashed over the Trump staff's requests for information that Obama aides fear could be used to identify and eliminate government employees who worked on Obama priorities like climate change and minority rights overseas. Trump's team, meanwhile, has been frustrated by Obama's attempts in the final days to box Trump in with parting moves to block ocean drilling, declare new monuments and further empty out the Guantanamo Bay prison. While on his annual vacation in Oahu, Obama asserted himself forcefully on two foreign policy issues that put him in direct conflict with Trump. Obama directed the US to defy tradition by allowing passage of a UN Security Council resolution criticizing Israel on settlements, then slapped Russia with sweeping penalties over US allegations of hacking against the US political process. Trump sided with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the first case and Russian President Vladimir Putin in the second. He's vacillated between praising Obama for how he's handled the transition, and criticizing him over it on Twitter. The final days are Obama's last chance to define his presidency before he loses the bully pulpit and cedes his legacy to historians. For Obama, helping Americans understand how his two terms have reshaped American life is even more critical amid concerns that Trump may undo much of what he accomplished, including the health law.
