[RD] The Obama Legacy

[onejayhawk]

I was going to save this for the end of the year, but articles are starting to crop up.

This one assesses his standing against his own words:
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/ar...gacy_--_against_his_own_mileposts_132514.html

Here are a few Obama comments tweeted by Anderson Cooper.
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/polit...gacy-as-presidency-comes-to-an-end/ar-AAlhIjN

Comments on #obamalegacy do run 3-1 unfavorable, but his job approval has improved dramatically in the last year.

J

 

[GoodEnoughForMe]

He was too smart and too caring to become part of the American mudfest of DC, where politics grinds you down and has you dealing with the reality of having to weigh a murder machine country of 315 million people into not alienating rival ME powers too much against one another.

Basically, he is probably one of the smartest and most intelligent politicians in the country right now, but he is limited and constrained by the same things that prevent any intelligent idealist from effecting the kind of significant change people hope for in politics. In that regard, he still managed to make sure his lasting legacy is more one of policy and not conflict (as opposed to his predecessor), even if at times he has seemingly attempted his damndest to not do so.

 

[onejayhawk]

Down and dirty politics was very much a part of the administration. Witness the ACA fight or the many continuing resolutions.

What the President was not good at doing was listening to other opinions, even those of other Democrats. If this was a failed administration--which I think is the case--it is largely because he was aloof when he should have been approachable.

J

 

[Lexicus]

If this was a failed administration--which I think is the case

By what standards did it fail?

 

[onejayhawk]

ISIS and ACA are the big ones. Both are entirely owned by the Democratic party and the Obama administration. His foreign policy was worse than Bush's which says all that is necessary. He was positioned to have a favorable impact on race relations. If anything, they are worse. Economics gets a C-. On the plus side, there is a lot more oil exploration and fracking.

I am hard pressed to think of another area of significance. He sponsored just one major law, the Affordable Care Act. That alone is an indictment.

J

 

[Gori the Grey]

As we look back, I think we do have to conclude that McConnell and the Party of No were able to keep much from happening during his term.

But, perhaps because I'm well settled, I like uneventful presidencies.

 

[innonimatu]

The Obama legacy is Trump. Nothing more to say.

 

[GoodEnoughForMe]

Down and dirty politics was very much a part of the administration. Witness the ACA fight or the many continuing resolutions.

J

The ACA I guess, kind of, but the reality is we had been moving in that direction since the 90s.

 

[JollyRoger]

ISIS is a direct gift from the previous administration.

 

[ThERat]

After 8 years (ok, he was having a hard time for 6 years with a Republican controlled senate and HoR), his achievements are underwhelming to say the least. To me, USA is in a really terrible state, torn apart by class and race conflicts. The environment is still not taken care of at all, and anyone who still bluffs themselves that human mankind is not facing the biggest challenge it could ever face, stay ignorant.

His successor is Trump, his own party couldn't even get any decent successor nominated. His own party is a complete disaster currently.

Looking outside the USA, the world is in turmoil. Europe disunited and torn internally, partially by the huge influx of migrants from places that the USA and its allies managed to sink into chaos. He let the Secretary of State meddle and mess up the so called Arab spring, dismantling rather stable governments to be replaced by either chaos or ISIS. His promises of troops withdrawal and closure of Guantanamo were all but talk.

He appeared cool and such a nice guy, but that doesn't make good and wise policies. I had a lot of hope in him, but got completely disillusioned that the USA can ever change for the better.

 

[Ajidica]

I think Obama is underrated who happens to be terrible at using the bully pulpit to get his message across. He could have better used the 2008 crisis and vehement backlash against the GOP to force through a progressive economic agenda, but that's politics and I don't think the Dems were expected the GOP to go so far into the weeds or the level of hate they were to receive. My only real gripe with him is the precedent he set with entrenching our surveillance apparatus, establishing a very generous precedent with executive orders, and getting special forces involved in "secret" wars around the globe. While I trust his judgment enough to not unnecessarily abuse those tools, I feel #thetrumpening and his clown car of advisors have a severe deficiency in basic human decency and will abuse all of those tools.

I would probably stick him in the top 25%, definitely top 50%.

 

[JollyRoger]

Best President of this millennium by far.

 

[FriendlyFire]

Obama gets 1/10 in the antichrist and ushering in the return of Jesus scale

 

[emzie]

Is dependant on how Trump's presidency plays out.

If Trump proves to be a disaster, Obama will be viewed favourably, with high praise for both, how the hell he held the country together for 8 years (and could have for more, without term limits), and for being moderately successful at with his agenda, in such a hostile environment.

If Trump is mediocre, Obama is seen as a brief uptick in a slow, long term decline.

 

[Kennigit]

The Obama legacy is Trump. Nothing more to say.

I lthink this is the best summary. One last thing to blame Obama for that isn't his fault.

 

[ThERat]

Best President of this millennium by far.

Not really that much of an achievement. The only other contender here should be charged in De Hague for war crimes

 

[onejayhawk]

ISIS is a direct gift from the previous administration.

Because no one warned him he was about to be an idiot?

Best President of this millennium by far.

Not really that much of an achievement. The only other contender here should be charged in De Hague for war crimes

It is a low bar. Bush was Bush. Clinton was a lame duck but still managed to do some really harmful things. Still, 3rd of 3.

J

 

[Agent327]

'managed do some really harmful things'. Like leaving a balanced budget? As basically any Democratic presidency over the last decades? Your bar seems to be lopsided.

 

[Lexicus]

'managed do some really harmful things'. Like leaving a balanced budget? As basically any Democratic presidency over the last decades? Your bar seems to be lopsided.

Well for the US right now a balanced budget is quite harmful so...yes?

 

[metalhead]

Well, let's see. The ACA has given 20 million people health insurance and millions more access. Even more would have access if not for Republican opposition to health care for poor people. It's imperfect but far better than the state of health insurance from before it passed.

ISIS is just about destroyed in the Middle East, after Bush waged the war that created it, so props to that.

No large scale terror attacks like Bush allowed, so props to that too.

A solid recovery that would continue indefinitely if not for the coming Trump recession, so that's good.

All in all, not a bad legacy. It's sad that competent executive governance goes largely unnoticed, but that seems to be what has happened. Even sadder is the fact that a president's legacy seems to be affected by the fact that he refused to self-promote, but that's more a commentary on the people who would call it a failed presidency than the president himself.