Nine years after he launched his unlikely presidential bid, President Barack Obama plans to return to the site where it all began: Springfield, Illinois.
The White House said Friday that Obama planned to visit there February 10, the same date he announced his candidacy in 2007.
“As a state senator, he spent each day in the Illinois State Capitol working in good faith with folks from all walks of life — Democrats and Republicans and independents representing good people of every ethnicity and faith — determined to do right by the people of the state he made his home,” a White House official told CNN. “And as a United States senator from Illinois, he chose the steps of the Old State Capitol, where Abraham Lincoln once called on a divided house to stand together, to ask Americans to join him in the unfinished business of perfecting our union.”
“Now, in the final year of his second term, the President looks forward to addressing the Illinois General Assembly on February 10th about what we can do, together, to build a better politics — one that reflects our better selves,” the official said.
The speech this year comes a day after his administration plans to unveil its final budget proposal, and it is expected Obama will made a sales pitch for the plan during his visit.
The 2007 address launched Obama — then beginning his third year as a U.S. senator — on an long-shot path to the White House. At the time he faced challenging odds for securing the Democratic nomination against a field of seasoned contenders, including Hillary Clinton, who had already begun questioning his experience and readiness for the top job.
He also faced persistent questions about the nation’s willingness to elevate an African-American as a major party presidential nominee, let alone commander-in-chief.
Those questions were put to rest months later when Obama bested Clinton for the party’s nomination, and beat Sen. John McCain by a decisive margin in the general election.
But at the time of Obama’s announcement, his candidacy offered only the potential for historic change in the country.
In the 2007 speech, delivered in single-digit temperatures on the steps of the Old State Capitol, Obama evoked the memory of Abraham Lincoln, who began his political career in the same location. He spoke about changing how business worked in Washington, and recognized the unlikely nature of his presidential bid.
“I recognize there is a certain presumptuousness in this — a certain audacity — to this announcement,” Obama said then, with his wife Michelle and two young daughters standing nearby. “I know that I haven’t spent a lot of time learning the ways of Washington, but I’ve been there long enough to know that the ways of Washington must change.”
“People who love their country can change it,” he said.
Nine years later, Obama has begun recapping the progress his administration made in reviving the economy, including touting a low unemployment rate and new records in U.S. auto sales.
But he’s also expressed chagrin that the “ways of Washington” have appeared to worsen under his watch.
“It’s one of the few regrets of my presidency — that the rancor and suspicion between the parties has gotten worse instead of better,” Obama said during his State of the Union address earlier this month. “I have no doubt a president with the gifts of Lincoln or Roosevelt might have better bridged the divide, and I guarantee I’ll keep trying to be better so long as I hold this office.”