If a slogan has left its mark in politics in recent years, beyond even the United States, where it had its great success, it has been the one that raised Barack Obama to the presidency in 2009: "Yes, we can."
The former US president has chatted with the journalist from Cadena SER Javier del Pino,
host
of the space
To live,
in an interview broadcast this Sunday.
"Is it true that you [the slogan] seemed corny and that you were sure it would not work?" Del Pino asked the former Democratic leader.
"That's true," Obama replied with a laugh, "I thought ... bah, I don't think it's that good.
It sounds better in Spanish: Yes, you can ”.
The former US president reviews this and other moments of the career that led him to the White House in his memoirs
A Promised Land
, published in Spain by the publishing house Debate.
In a tone of absolute cordiality, addressing the interviewer by his first name, even remembering his daughters at the end of the talk, Obama (Hawaii, 59 years old) has opened a window to his youthful memories, to his efforts to reach the presidency and his eight years of government at the head of the United States.
"I was not born rich," said the Democrat during the conversation.
"I had to apply for credits to be able to go to university and that made me better understand the problems of young people."
Obama has not avoided addressing some of the thorniest issues of his mandate, such as the war against terrorism, which he inherited from the previous presidency and continued until the death of Osama Bin Laden, leader of the Al Qaeda network.
"Even necessary wars entail very terrible things," he told Del Pino.
“And that is something that weighs on my conscience.
And it has to be that way.
I would distrust a leader who did not reflect on this, who did not affect him.
On January 20, 2017, Obama gave the witness to the winner of the elections held two months earlier, Republican magnate Donald Trump.
"One of the joys and also frustrations of democracy," said the former president of the United States, "is that you have to make compromises, and you can never achieve 100% of what you want.
The good news is that, thanks to democracy, Donald Trump didn't achieve 100% of what he wanted either. "
The former
number two
of Obama, his vice president, Joe Biden, beat Trump in the elections on November 3.
Listen here to the full interview in Spanish by Javier del Pino with Barack Obama on Cadena SER or here in its original version.