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Obama's Speech: 22 Min. 30 Sec. Longer Than Length of Closest Farewell Address, 518 More Words

Barack Obama
AP
January 11, 2017

President Obama's farewell address Tuesday night in Chicago was 22 minutes and 30 seconds longer than the closest length of a televised farewell speech given by an outgoing president.

He also set another record with the highest word count, saying 518 more words than former President Harry Truman, whose farewell address in 1953 contained 3,748 words.

The duration of Obama's speech was 49 minutes and 55 seconds in length and was comprised of 4,266 words, according to the Wall Street Journal.

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The closest in length to Obama was former President George H.W. Bush. His speech lasted 27 minutes and 25 seconds with 3,298 words.

Even though Truman had the second highest word count, his farewell speech was only 25 minutes and one second.

Coming in dead last, former President Bill Clinton had the shortest length and word count among the group, with his address lasting seven minutes and 23 seconds and only having 1,109 words.

Clinton's speech was five minutes and 44 minutes less than the next closest time from President George W. Bush's address.

According to the American Presidency Project, only 13 presidents have delivered farewell addresses.

The Wall Street Journal noted that these numbers excluded former Presidents Lyndon Johnson and Gerald Ford, who gave State of the Union addresses as their farewells.

The figures also excluded former President Richard Nixon, whose resignation announcement served as his farewell address.

Before Obama, H.W. Bush was the only president not to give a farewell speech from inside Washington, D.C. He delivered his remarks from U.S. Military Academy.