# Looking back at Obama's time as POTUS. **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [November 9, 2016, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-back-at-obamas-time-as-potus/771227 "2016-11-09T16:20:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2016, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-back-at-obamas-time-as-potus/771227/1 "2016-11-09T16:20:25Z")
As we look forward with trepidation to four years of Trump as POTUS, let us look back with pleasure at Obama’s 8 years. When he came into office in 2009, things were a mess. Since then he’s bagged Bin Laden, started America on the road to UHC, started and overseen a modest recovery, and not much else of consequence has happened at home. And that last bit is the important bit for me. He’s managed things well. The American economy hasn’t crumbled. People still trust the dollar. Boring, safe, unexciting, job well done. That’s the view from across the pond. How about you? ---
**Author:** ![DrCube](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a3d4f5/32.png) [@DrCube](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrCube)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2016, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-back-at-obamas-time-as-potus/771227/2 "2016-11-09T16:43:06Z")
Anything of consequence he did will be wiped out January 20th. It’s like he wasn’t even President. A president with no lasting legacy is not a good president. He tried, but he failed. ---
**Author:** ![Itself](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/d07c76/32.png) [@Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Itself)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2016, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-back-at-obamas-time-as-potus/771227/3 "2016-11-09T16:54:14Z")
He’ll be remembered as a brief respite between the catastrophic presidencies Bush and Trump, and as the first black president. Aside from that, there was the ACA/Obamacare, which has no chance of surviving the next four years; taking out Bin Laden, which was great but not something that really makes it into the history books; financial reform, which is too wonkish to substantiate a legacy; and having a modest but sustained recovery after the apocalyptic crash of 2008, which I have little faith in Trump’s being able to sustain. All in all, not a bad president, and a remarkable man personally, but one who will be consigned to the bin of mildly successful, unremarkable presidents. His legacy will be on the same order as those of the elder Bush and McKinley. ---
**Author:** ![Fotheringay-Phipps](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/d9b06d/32.png) [@Fotheringay-Phipps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fotheringay-Phipps)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2016, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-back-at-obamas-time-as-potus/771227/4 "2016-11-09T17:46:14Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > When he came into office in 2009, things were a mess. Since then he’s bagged Bin Laden, started America on the road to UHC, started and overseen a modest recovery, and not much else of consequence has happened at home. And that last bit is the important bit for me. He’s managed things well. The American economy hasn’t crumbled. People still trust the dollar. Boring, safe, unexciting, job well done. Also, he kept the sun rising in the east and setting in the west for 8 long years. Plus, he finally brought a world series championship to Chicago - something no president has managed to do since Teddy Roosevelt. ---
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2016, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-back-at-obamas-time-as-potus/771227/5 "2016-11-09T18:54:52Z")
I’ve heard it said that “every President carries a large measure of responsibility for the next one.” Obama may not score a lot of points there. Listening to people who voted for Trump, I note that dissatisfaction with the ACA seems to get a lot of mention. I have to believe that was not done well, and that this will be remembered. ---
**Author:** ![puddleglum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puddleglum/32/137_2.png) [@puddleglum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puddleglum)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2016, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-back-at-obamas-time-as-potus/771227/6 "2016-11-09T19:52:03Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > As we look forward with trepidation to four years of Trump as POTUS, let us look back with pleasure at Obama’s 8 years. > > When he came into office in 2009, things were a mess. Since then he’s bagged Bin Laden, started America on the road to UHC, started and overseen a modest recovery, and not much else of consequence has happened at home. And that last bit is the important bit for me. He’s managed things well. The American economy hasn’t crumbled. People still trust the dollar. Boring, safe, unexciting, job well done. > > That’s the view from across the pond. How about you? To me his biggest accomplishment was getting the Dallas Cowboys to first place in the NFC, and the great thing is he did it without Tony Romo. ---
**Author:** ![Translucent\_Daydream](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/translucent_daydream/32/16170_2.png) [@Translucent\_Daydream](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Translucent_Daydream)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2016, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-back-at-obamas-time-as-potus/771227/7 "2016-11-09T20:11:31Z")
Maybe he will be looked at like he was the president that the US wasn’t ready for. Too soon maybe? ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2016, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-back-at-obamas-time-as-potus/771227/8 "2016-11-09T20:22:39Z")
> [@Xema](#): > > … Listening to people who voted for Trump, I note that dissatisfaction with the ACA seems to get a lot of mention. I have to believe that was not done well, and that this will be remembered. It was done as well as was possible in the circumstances of the existing shambles of a health care system. Obama is philosophically in favor of single-payer UHC. He said this in the early days of his political career – which Republicans tried to use against him as if he was some kind of communist sympathizer – and he said it again in a recent interview with Bill Maher as he himself reflected on his legacy. But as he said, this would have been his preference if starting from scratch, but there was no opportunity to start from scratch, so he did what was politically possible. ---
**Author:** ![marshmallow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df705f/32.png) [@marshmallow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/marshmallow)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2016, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-back-at-obamas-time-as-potus/771227/9 "2016-11-09T20:58:22Z")
Depending on how a Trump presidency shakes out, Obama’s most historically notable effect on America may be the deterioration of race relations. ---
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2016, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-back-at-obamas-time-as-potus/771227/10 "2016-11-09T21:30:41Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > It was done as well as was possible in the circumstances … Perhaps. But it plausibly has cost Hillary and other Dems a non-trivial number of votes. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2016, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-back-at-obamas-time-as-potus/771227/11 "2016-11-09T21:54:44Z")
> [@Fotheringay-Phipps](#): > > Also, he kept the sun rising in the east and setting in the west for 8 long years. Plus, he finally brought a world series championship to Chicago - something no president has managed to do since Teddy Roosevelt. You’re forgetting the 2005 White Sox. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2016, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-back-at-obamas-time-as-potus/771227/12 "2016-11-09T21:57:10Z")
> [@marshmallow](#): > > Depending on how a Trump presidency shakes out, Obama’s most historically notable effect on America may be the deterioration of race relations. Really? Is America really more racist? Is America actually racist? That there are racist Americans is beyond doubt, but are they a significant minority? Or are they just a visible minority? Is this just fear-mongering by the Democratic establishment? Since that’s a blatant fork, albeit of my own thread, I’ll start a one on that subject [here](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=810175). ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2016, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-back-at-obamas-time-as-potus/771227/13 "2016-11-09T22:49:03Z")
> [@Xema](#): > > Perhaps. But it plausibly has cost Hillary and other Dems a non-trivial number of votes. It may have, but only because of relentless lobbying and misrepresentation by the right. If extending health insurance to 20 million Americans who didn’t previously have it and removing the obscenely unethical pre-existing condition loophole was turned into a political liability by mendacious Republican electioneering, it just underscores the frustrating irrationality of this electoral disaster and the stupid gullible voters who caused it. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2016, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-back-at-obamas-time-as-potus/771227/14 "2016-11-09T23:04:35Z")
UHC is covered in my OP, folks. Can I just re-emphasise that I think that ‘not a lot happened on his watch’ is a good thing? ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2016, 9:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-back-at-obamas-time-as-potus/771227/15 "2016-11-10T09:18:43Z")
Looking back, Obama wasted a golden opportunity to ensure Democratic dominance for a long time by pursuing an agenda that was not very well received by the public and just assumed they’d like it in time. Under him, the Democratic Party lost more ground in elected offices than any other time in the post-war era. Until yesterday, Democrats could still point to the White House and the “blue wall” as a sign of strength in general elections. Turns out, the only strength was Obama himself. And with him gone, they are left with pretty much nothing. They have to rebuild. The good news is that it doesn’t have to be a long rebuilding process, but Obama ended up being really bad for the party. As for the results of his Presidency, unremarkable but safe, so the overseas view of him is probably quite valid. My issues with his performance have mainly to do with process and his attitude towards his political opponents. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2016, 10:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-back-at-obamas-time-as-potus/771227/16 "2016-11-10T10:01:57Z")
I summarized thusly in a previous thread: [ > [@The Rat of Christmas Past](#): > > Obamacare widened the scope of public health care, but did nothing about the large bill we’ve been paying for health care in this country. Whether it’s true or not, Obama will be blamed for it when our health care costs become prohibitive and a national crisis. And I think it would at least be fair to say that he didn’t do anything to reduce the cost of health care, as part of his plan, despite health care reform being one of the centerpoints of his presidency. > > His government’s solution to the GM bankruptcy was to sell the company to the union which had ran the thing into bankruptcy to begin with. GM did some restructuring and hard work to make it seem like they were finally ready to give a damn about the cars they were making, for a few years, and made some automobiles that scored well on a technical and quality level. But that’s been dropping off, from what I’ve heard, and I suspect that we’re going to see them crazy and burn again in the next ten years. > > His government invested deeply in green technology, as a way to spur the economy and do so in a way that isn’t just propping up struggling or established industries. The results of that initiative seem to have been successful on the whole, but it was a risky maneuver that would have backfired if the technology hadn’t come into place as hoped. Imagine if he had backed cold fusion 40 years ago, when everyone thought it would just take a little bit of capital to get past those last few technical hurdles… Yeah, not good. So, he may have lucked out on this one. While I sort of approve of investments in new business as a solution for economic stagnation, it’s a dangerous precedent in general and particularly if you’re going to choose your investment targets based on politically correct measure like backing “green energy”. > > Fracking was allowed to develop and expand under Obama, and this has probably done more to stop Putin from taking over the Ukraine than anything else Obama did, intentionally, for that purpose. I somewhat doubt that fracking was something that Obama really sought to have proliferate, so putting it down as thanks to him would probably be incorrect. > > While he was able to catch Osama bin Laden, he failed to act strongly enough against ISIS before it could form into a genuine threat. China was allowed to take over the South China Seas with impunity. Putin was able to destabilise the Ukraine without ever really being made to feel any pain for having done so, via anything Obama did. > > He largely reneged on his mandate to shut down Guantanamo. (Which should annoy his supporters, even if I personally don’t care terribly.) > > Excluding the investments in green energy, his measures to restore the American economy were fairly by-the-text-book and allowed it to heal as well as those methods are concerned. Personally, I put that down more in the category of the nation healing itself, in the absence of stupid, but it is necessary for the government to perform various acts of economic stimulus for placebo purposes. On the whole, I’d give him a good grade for doing fairly reasonable things, and not doing anything stupid in this regard. It was a very measured approach. > > He has reestablished diplomacy between the US and Cuba, and the US and Iran. He got the Trans-Pacific Partnership approved. These are good things. > > In general, I would say that his approach was very cautious and as such that worked decently for places were caution is fine. But that cautious nature also let Russia, China, and ISIS misbehave without fear. > > Where he wasn’t cautious, his handling was very left-politic and in those things I sense future problems coming from them. Even the investment into green energy I expect to have pop up again in a few years as having actually been a bad idea. Though, I don’t know what form that will take. > > The only really impressive things that he has done, as president, have been in the last year. I am glad to see his success with Cuba and Iran. But I wouldn’t say that those successes turn him into a good president, just one smart enough to have figured out how to remain meaningful in the last years of his last term. ]([http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=19441357&postcount=25](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=19441357&postcount=25)) Or, in summary, seems decent (though not exceptional) but with a few potential trapdoors that may be waiting to swing open under us in the future. ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2016, 10:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-back-at-obamas-time-as-potus/771227/17 "2016-11-10T10:19:32Z")
TPP is a bad arrangement for us. The Iran treaty is a joke, and it brings the world much less stability. > [@DrCube](#): > > Anything of consequence he did will be wiped out January 20th. It’s like he wasn’t even President. A president with no lasting legacy is not a good president. He tried, but he failed. He stumped often and hard for Clinton, because he realized his legacy was at stake. When things change, his legacy will be gone. He was our first black president, and that in and of itself was a great statement to the country and to the world. But in the end, to be known mainly by the color of your skin (and I am a minority, brown), is not saying much at all. He was our first token black president. To quote **DrCube** , It’s like he wasn’t even President. A president with no lasting legacy is not a good president. He tried, but he failed **miserably**. > [@marshmallow](#): > > Depending on how a Trump presidency shakes out, Obama’s most historically notable effect on America may be the deterioration of race relations. This too, a terrible deterioration of race relations. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2016, 10:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-back-at-obamas-time-as-potus/771227/18 "2016-11-10T10:34:10Z")
> [@Bullitt](#): > > To quote **DrCube** , It’s like he wasn’t even President. A president with no lasting legacy is not a good president. He tried, but he failed **miserably**. I’ve got to partially disagree. While that may be the short term view, in the longer term, he will be seen in a much more favourable light. When he came to power the American economy was in a right state. Now it’s not. America has taken another step towards UHC. And so on. He’s done a lot of quiet, unsung work, and I think history will judge him favourably. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2016, 11:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-back-at-obamas-time-as-potus/771227/19 "2016-11-10T11:14:22Z")
> [@Bullitt](#): > > TPP is a bad arrangement for us. The Iran treaty is a joke, and it brings the world much less stability. A primary purpose of TPP was to put together a partnership of non-Chinese countries as counterweight to a China growing in power. Its importance was geopolitical more than economic. (The growing power of China and Russia may eventually threaten world stability.) As for Iran: Are you suggesting that an isolated Iran developing nuclear weapons provides more stability than an Iran which has abandoned, at least in the short and middle term, its nuclear ambitions and which is welcomed back to the tables of diplomacy? We’ll need a _Cite_ for that to be more than one Doper’s quaint opinion. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2016, 11:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-back-at-obamas-time-as-potus/771227/20 "2016-11-10T11:20:51Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > It was done as well as was possible in the circumstances of the existing shambles of a health care system. He could’ve refrained from promising that, if I liked my plan, I could keep it. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-back-at-obamas-time-as-potus/771227.md?page=2)