WASHINGTON, Nov. 9 (UPI) — Although he’s now 85 percent of the way through his presidency, President Barack Obama launched the commander-in-chief’s official Facebook page Monday.
Until now, Obama had communicated through the White House’s official Facebook page.
“I finally got my very own page,” Obama wrote in his initial message on the page. “I hope you’ll think of this as a place where we can have real conversations about the most important issues facing our country – a place where you can hear directly from me, and share your own thoughts and stories. (You can expect some just-for-fun stuff, too.)”
When Obama was sworn into office in 2009, he had nearly 3,000 days remaining in his two-term presidency. As of Monday, that number was down to just 438 days.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Obama’s first Facebook message centered on one of the tenets of his administration — climate change — and touches on an upcoming visit to France for the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference.
“I say this often, but that’s because it’s always at the front of my mind: We’ve got to preserve this beautiful planet of ours for our kids and grandkids,” the post said. “Tthat means taking serious steps to address climate change once and for all. Now, we’ve made a lot of progress to cut carbon pollution here at home, and we’re leading the world to take action as well. But we’ve got to do more.
“In a few weeks, I’m heading to Paris to meet with world leaders about a global agreement to meet this challenge.”
The conference will run between Nov. 30 and Dec. 11.
A two-minute video accompanied Obama’s post, which depicted him walking near the White House’s South Portico.
“This has been my back yard for the last seven years,” he says in the video as he exits the presidential residence and steps onto the south lawn. “It also happens to be a national park. There’s a lot of critters out here, too. There’s a fox somewhere on the grounds because I’ve seen it. It’s wandered around the Oval Office.”
Obama also acknowledged that a hawk, named “Lincoln” by visiting children, lives on the presidential grounds.
The new page will likely become the official Facebook account of all future Presidents of the United States, rather than Obama’s official personal page — as the URL for the page is www.facebook.com/POTUS.
