It seems fitting that President Barack Obama delivered his farewell address in Chicago, the city that became the focus of his family and his early political career. That’s where his public life really took shape, so it’s natural that he would want to end his presidency speaking before the bedrock of his political base.

But there is a lot about Hawaii, state of Obama’s birth, that shaped his approach to the job he started eight years ago in the White House. An international perspective he drew both from his parents and from his upbringing in a place where the majority can be described as immigrants.

This orientation undoubtedly lay at the heart of some of the 44th president’s successes as well as his liberal inclinations, but could be tagged as a vulnerability for failings as well.

Hawaii is a place of diverse ideas, as well, for all its reputation as a one-party state. Especially on social issues, Hawaii’s population includes a healthy sector that holds conservative thoughts, possibly owing to its cultural and religious history. And yet discussions of these issues haven’t splintered the community in any lasting way.

This may be island culture — when you live in close proximity, it won’t do to stop talking to your neighbor altogether.

Perhaps some of this stuck with Obama as he transitioned to the nation’s executive branch. He leaned always toward inclusivity, and although that fueled his fiery, inspiring campaigning in 2008, it may not have prepared him for the fierce political fights ahead.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Obama’s signature piece, reflected an expectation of health care as a right that was fed in part by Hawaii’s progressive provision of coverage in its own health care law.

But there’s a reason achieving health reform had eluded presidents for decades, and it’s because of a deep philosophical divide over the role of government in this realm. Obama wasn’t prepared for the determination of the opposition to block the program, regardless of any counteroffer he could make.

Clearly, something of this magnitude required a mastery of political gamesmanship that the president hadn’t mastered during his years as a lawmaker in a liberal state and his brief time in the U.S. Senate. He didn’t have the cards to call in to get the Republican minority to deal.

So he had to settle on an imperfect law, muscled through a narrow partisan vote, to achieve at least part of this important goal.

Ultimately that was the best course to take, rather than to give up. Despite all the clamoring from the GOP leadership to repeal Obamacare, despite its shortcomings, the ACA was able to improve access to care for millions of Americans, and changed public expectations about the availability of health coverage. The GOP now is contending with that.

Obama enjoyed policymaking but clearly not the politicking needed to seal a difficult deal. Comprehensive immigration reform, another high priority, got away from him.

But Obama’s chief strength is persistence, and the belief that with determination America can achieve its objectives.

He was determined to end U.S. ground wars in the Middle East and did scale back the number of troops, which was welcomed by a nation weary of war.

The president has taken criticism for the way he has managed the Syrian civil war, however, and his rhetorical skills surely did him a disservice there. Laying down the now infamous “red line” over chemical weapons and then not enforcing it when the Assad regime crossed it did not bolster the image of American strength.

Whether any approach to the Syrian minefield could have led to a solution in the short term is debatable, but the result has been undeniably a humanitarian catastrophe.

Many of his critics fault Obama for pursuing a less U.S.-centric approach to foreign policy and for transitioning to a less muscular military presence. But even his successor, President-elect Donald Trump, wants American allies to step up and pay more of their own way. That, too, requires multilateralism, and that has its beginnings in the Obama doctrine.

Much of the analysis of his successes and failures can’t be written for years to come. But the stamp Obama has left on the nation is already quite clear.

Quick action at the brink of economic catastrophe in 2009 helped the U.S. avert disaster and rebuild slowly but steadily. Policies to address climate change and the environment kept future generations in sight.

Our nation’s first African-America president has encouraged progress in civil rights, for gay and lesbian couples especially. And when comprehensive reform failed, he pressed for executive protections of many young immigrants brought here illegally as children.

In essence Obama was seeking an America more like the one he grew up with here: multicultural, tolerant and inclusive. The president’s final, stirring address to the nation indicates that he is far from done working toward that goal.