Obama draws crowd, cheers in NYC

Former US President Barack Obama drew a huge crowd and overwhelming cheers when he visited an office building here, media reports said.

New Yorkers who are supposed to be cool with any celebrity in their midst, had no chill Friday in Manhattan when the former President was spotted at downtown Starbucks, CBS News reported.

Obama, whose most recent headlines were about kitesurfing with Richard Branson, was spotted leaving 160 Fifth Avenue around noon, with a cup of coffee in his hand.

The reports said that the 44th President "caused quite a commotion".

A video tweeted, showed a mass of people waving and cheering in blocked-off sections as he walked to his motorcade of at least three black cars.

In the clip, Obama was seen waving to the crowd in various directions before putting on sunglasses and entering a vehicle.

It was, however, not clear why he was in the city, The Hill magazine reported.

Obama has mostly kept a low profile since exiting the White House in January after two terms as president.

The former Democratic senator from Illinois first won the White House in 2008, becoming the first black president in American history.

Obama's job approval rating ultimately hovered around 57 per cent when he left office, according to the last RealClearPolitics polling average.

The Democrat was also placed 12th in C-SPAN's 2017 presidential historians survey last week, which was conducted among 91 historians and other executive branch experts.

Participants were told to give presidents a score of 1 to 10 on different "qualities of presidential leadership".

Categories included economic management, vision/setting an agenda, relations with Congress and crisis leadership.

Obama topped other former Presidents like Bill Clinton, Andrew Jackson and John Adams.

President Donald Trump succeeded Obama following his January 20 inauguration, and the Republican has made repealing and replacing ObamaCare, the latter's signature domestic achievement, an early focus of his agenda.

--IANS

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