It has been a victorious week for Barack Obama, and arguably the best one of his presidency.

His spectacular seven days have included triumphs in healthcare reform, a trade deal and the legalization of gay marriage across the United States.

But it all seemed to come together on Friday, when he paused during a stirring eulogy to a victim of the Charleston massacre, and sung the opening lines to Amazing Grace - prompting the entire congregation to join in. 

The speech which stunned the crowd touched upon gun violence, voter suppression and the fate of the Confederate flag.

It comes as he enters his final year-and-a-half in office - with some arguing it is the start of a victory lap. 
The week began with a victory on Pacific Rim trade, which was snatched from the jaws of defeat on Capitol Hill on Wednesday. 

The Senate gave President Barack Obama the green light today to move forward in trade negotiations with 11 other countries.

The vote moved along the president's free trade package that has been the subject of congressional debate for nearly two months. 

The Supreme Court on Thursday validated his signature healthcare law, guaranteeing he would accomplish a central second-term goal, to protect the 2010 Affordable Care Act from being dismantled by Republicans.
It was a critical victory for President Barack Obama, whose legacy hinged on the court upholding the law he shepherded through Congress during his first term at the White House.

'After multiple challenges to this law before the Supreme Court, the Affordable Court Act is here to stay,' he declared, decrying what he called a 'partisan' push to undercut the law and strip millions of American of their health insurance plans.

On Friday came the high court's decision to legalize same-sex marriage, a move Obama said was a 'big step' toward equality for Americans.

After the court decision was announced, Obama took a Rose Garden victory lap.

'Progress on this journey often comes in small increments, sometimes two steps forward, one step back,' he said.

'And then sometimes, there are days like this when that slow, steady effort is rewarded with justice that arrives like a thunderbolt.' 

Later that afternoon, he delivered a searing message on race relations in a wide-ranging, emotional eulogy for Rev Clementa Pinckeny - one of the nine people killed in the Charleston massacre.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3141645/Best-week-Obama-Victorious-gay-marriage-triumphant-health-care-reform-evangelical-pulpit-race-guns.html

Testing ma FTC skill #wink

When President Obama neared the end of his eulogy Friday for the late South Carolina state Sen. Clementa Pinckney (D), a victim of the shootings at a Charleston church last week, he paused. A long pause. It was a moment of genuine drama. Had he lost his place? Were his emotions getting to him?

Then, he started to sing -- the opening bars to "Amazing Grace." Soon, the entire congregation at the AME Emanuel Church joined him in song.
It was a moment of considerable weight and significance: A black president leading a congregation in song at a place where nine black people were murdered by a man with the apparent goal of starting a race war.

And, it served as the coda to Obama's single best week as president -- a week filled with developments, both practical and symbolic, that will reverberate well beyond not only this week or month but his entire presidency.

The week began with Obama winning a trade fight over fast-track negotiating authority that looked to be on thin ice even a week ago. He did so by pulling off something even more remarkable and unlikely: successfully collaborating with Republican congressional leaders to find a path to passage of a rare shared priority.

While fast-track authority for Obama is not the same thing as a successfully negotiated Trans Pacific Partnership (get smart on all the trade deals here) it preserves the possibility of that 12-nation deal coming to fruition and provides Obama a bit of momentum stateside as well. If Obama is able to help make TPP happen, that will be a major foreign policy achievement with consequences lasting well beyond his presidency.

Then came the Supreme Court's ruling Thursday that upheld the subsidies for low- and middle-income Americans using the federal marketplace under the Affordable Care Act. That judgment, the second time the court had upheld a provision of Obamacare, ended perhaps the last major hope of anti-ACA forces to defund or discredit the bill.
Obama did everything he could to avoid spiking the football in a statement following the court's decision. But whether he came out and said it or not, the court's ruling on Obamacare validated what is, without question, the defining policy accomplishment of Obama's time in office. Had the court decided the other way, the legacy of Obamacare would have been deeply muddled -- and it might not have even survived in anything close to a recognizable form. Given how much Obama and his party had lost in the fight for the law, that would have been disastrous. Winning, on the other hand, was a massive affirmation.

Twenty four hours later, the court was back at it -- legalizing same sex marriage nationwide. Obama was a late-arriver on the issue, without question. He supported only civil unions during his 2008 campaign and it wasn't until May 2012 -- as his race for reelection neared -- that Obama finally came out in support of gay marriage.

But even prior to Obama's own public statement in support of same-sex marriage, his administration was taking actions that led to Friday's ruling. In 2011, the Justice Department announced it would no longer defend the Defense of Marriage Act; in June 2013, the Court struck DOMA -- a decision that set things in motion for Friday's ruling.

On Friday, in remarks delivered after the marriage ruling, Obama returned to that theme. "Today we can say, in no uncertain terms, that we have made our union a little more perfect," Obama declared.

Then Obama got on a plane bound for Charleston where, nine days earlier, the latest in a string of mass shooting during his time in office had been committed in the basement of a famous African American church.

The speech Obama delivered, easily one of his best few as president, was a stirring appeal to the redemptive power of grace. It was about how finding grace -- even in tragedies like those visited on the church where he spoke -- was at the essence of who we all are. Obama touched on gun control, on race relations, on how what divides us is dwarfed by what unites us.

And then be broke into song. It was a genuine moment that will be remembered long after the 2016 election decides who will follow Obama into office. The most powerful person in the country, singing the words "Amazing grace, how sweet the sound...that saved a wretch like me" with the eyes of the country on him. It was deeply stirring and emotional -- not just for Democrats or African Americans but for Americans, period.

This was a week that will define not only Obama's second term and his presidency. This is a week that will leave profound implications on our society, setting off ripples that we may not fully grasp for years if not decades.

Obama ran as a change agent. For better or worse, this is the week he realized that destiny most fully during his time in office[

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2015/06/26/this-was-the-best-week-of-obamas-presidency/

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Seven years after, some are already considering him one of the greatest American leaders yet, aside his foreign policy fails he has really tried despite Republican opposition, the US economy is growing again, more people have access to healthcare and rights of everyone have been extended, Viva Obeezy

Where is symphony007 the biggest Obama fan on nairaland

Obama will be to the Democrats what Reagan is to the Republicans, a brave leader who in the face of strong opposition has excelled, if only he could stay for four more years,

SenseiX:
Obama will be to the Democrats what Reagan is to the Republicans, a brave leader who in the face of strong opposition has excelled, if only he could stay for four more years,

Plus if Clinton wins next year, he'd have basically secured another term for the Democrats, Posterity will judge him well, if only Nigeria had such leaders, he leaves unstained, Bill Clinton left with a sex scandal blighting his legacy while Bush left with 2 wars and an economy in recession but Obama is leaving on a high.

Another article from NPR on his momentous week, politico had one too.
http://www.npr.org/sections/itsallpolitics/2015/06/26/417590380/how-key-republicans-helped-obama-to-biggest-week-of-his-second-term
http://www.politico.com/story/2015/06/barack-obama-momentous-week-president-reborn-social-issues-119503.html?hp=t2_r