Unlike inaugural addresses, which tend to be visionary and future-oriented, or state of the union remarks, which lay out a policy agenda, farewell addresses typically get neither the attention nor the consistency of other key presidential speeches. Some presidents make their final remarks as part of their last State of the Union, while others, says University of Pennsylvania professor Kathleen Hall Jamieson, offer several speeches toward the end of their presidency about a single topic of importance but not distinctive farewell speech.

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"Lyndon B. Johnson went on what amounted to a farewell binge," she noted, with multiple speeches about the problems in Vietnam. Others, such as Richard Nixon, never offer formal ones. "This is a fairly complex piece of rhetoric. If the inaugural invests you with the presidency, the farewell divests you, rhetorically. It transitions you back into the role of a citizen."

Obama is likely to speak about the economic progress of the country since he took office amid the financial crisis and Great Recession. And he will probably note other achievements, as well as try to offer hope to a demoralized Democratic party in the wake of its election defeat. In addition, "I think he's going to want to talk about the future, and how many Americans are taking democracy for granted," said Douglas Brinkley, a presidential historian at Rice University.

In an interview with NBC News, Obama said he wanted to be able to convey the gratitude he felt. White House spokesman Josh Earnest said in a briefing Monday that "I can tell you, in general, that the president is committed to delivering a forward-looking speech that will examine briefly the significant progress that our country has made in the last eight years. But it will take a closer look and he'll spend more time talking about what the president believes is necessary for us to confront the challenges that lie ahead."

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Presidents also tend to discuss their key accomplishments in farewell speeches as a way of cementing their legacy or seeding for historians what they thought was important, and scholars anticipate that tonight's speech will be similar. But Obama's case will face a unique challenging of touting his signature legislative achievement -- the Affordable Care Act -- as Republicans work to undo it. "I can’t remember an address where a president is in that situation," Jamieson said.

He may also sound a cautionary warning about issues such as climate change, cybersecurity or the need for more involvement in our democracy. The two most memorable presidential farewell speeches, say both Jamieson and Brinkley, did just that in their remarks. Eisenhower's memorable warning about the "military-industrial complex" was part of his 1961 speech. "In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military industrial complex," he said. "The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist."

And Washington sounded the alarm about both steering "clear of permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world," as well as the one that is often most remembered, regarding the threat of partisanship. "There is an opinion that parties in free countries are useful checks upon the administration of the government and serve to keep alive the spirit of liberty," Washington warned in a printed address. "This within certain limits is probably true.”

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Yet he also said he wanted to warn Americans "in the most solemn manner against the baneful effects of the spirit of party generally. This spirit, unfortunately, is inseparable from our nature, having its root in the strongest passions of the human mind. It exists under different shapes in all governments, more or less stifled, controlled, or repressed; but, in those of the popular form, it is seen in its greatest rankness, and is truly their worst enemy." With a divided nation, Obama could choose to refer to those words from Washington.

Other memorable farewell speeches, says Brinkley, have been Andrew Jackson's, which was particularly long and is known for its reverence for the founding fathers: "You have no longer any cause to fear danger from abroad ... It is from within, among yourselves--from cupidity, from corruption, from disappointed ambition and inordinate thirst for power--that factions will be formed and liberty endangered."

Harry Truman's plain-spoken goodbye speech is also considered one of the more notable, both for his discussion of the decisions he faced and the way he spoke about the difficulty of the job. Truman's speech was given "at the beginning of television age, and he spoke about the burdens of office, being the first Cold War president and the dropping of the atomic bomb," Brinkley said.

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Indeed, even as Truman left the job, he seemed particularly in awe of it, saying there is "no job like it on the face of the earth" and noting "the power which is concentrated here at this desk, and in the responsibility and difficulty of the decisions." He wanted to share that difficulty with American citizens, offering another sentiment Obama could echo in tonight's speech.

"I want all of you to realize how big a job, how hard a job, it is — not for my sake, because I am stepping out of it — but for the sake of my successor," Truman said. "He needs the understanding and the help of every citizen. It is not enough for you to come out once every four years and vote for a candidate, and then go back home and say, 'Well, I've done my part, now let the new President do the worrying.' He can't do the job alone."

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