Practically everything he did or didn’t do during his administration, none of which are ever referenced in the chain emails. Which specific things remain to be played out in subsequent history.
For example, his health care reform bamboozle virtually assures that there will never be another meaningful attempt to fix the mess.
Aside from all his policy achievements noted above, I would add his greatest contribution as catalyst for the destruction of the Republican Party as we know it. His election single handedly caused the GOP to go batshit crazy and self-immolate. Perhaps it can reconstitute itself without the corrosive ignorance that is destroying it, but I doubt it. Thanks Obama.
3 years out of high school here. I do a little better than that, but not much. JFK I know for the bay of pigs, being a womanizer, the man on the moon speech, and being assassinated. Nixon went to China, started the EPA, and resigned after Watergate. Reagan was involved in Iran-Contra and some questionable involvement in South America, and Alzheimer’s affected him later on in his presidency. I also know the right loves him, but I’ve never really understood why.
As for the less memorable ones…Carter was attacked by a rabbit, I think. And Bush I entered the first gulf war. Johnson presided over civil rights, ramped up the war in Vietnam, and also was prone talking about his dick. And I forgot Gerald Ford even existed until I looked it up.
I think he’ll have about the same memorability as LBJ … there’s a LOT of material for historians to ponder, but not too many flashy moments (either positive or negative) that get stamped on popular culture.
I think he’ll be remembered as historic for being the first black president, but in examining his achievements he will be seen as competent, but ultimately he will be seen as too middle-of-the-road and stymied by a hostile opposition to have achieved much more than being a safe pair of hands.
Top 10 easily, maybe Top 5. Nixon, OTOH, will go from reviled to excised from history books. His criminal legacy will be erased as much as possible.
Gerry Ford likes football and nachos, and then some beer. Also kind of clumsy.
He’ll be remembered for being black, forgotten for what he did.
Agree totally. Again, I’m not American, but he is hugely admired in Australia.
Didn’t see this addressed, but Nixon was not impeached. He resigned, but if he had not, impeachment was a strong likelihood, and probably inevitable.
Also, one of his achievements was opening relations with the Communist government of China, which the U.S. had formally refused to recognize for almost 25 years.
Wait - you don’t think that Healthcare Reform is historic? Dude - used in a non-gender-specific way! - there are three scenarios playing out:
It continues - in which case the fact that it passed and stuck will be as historic as other Gov’t actions like this, e.g., Social Security, Medicare, etc. Good or Bad, it will be historic.
It is thwarted - e.g., a GOP President (funny to be discussing right now) figures out a way to defund it. Still historic.
It evolves - because some of its structures were kludged to keep it moving, because you learn as you go with these programs, and because the political climate will evolve pro and con towards Reform, it could lurch towards Single Payer, or the current structures could simply operate more efficiently as the “Internet-ification” of Healthcare progresses. Still historic.
So - just to look at that one example, the assertion that Obama will be remembered ONLY for being the first African-American President seems incredibly limited in view.
I am finding this discussion interesting. Seems difficult for people to separate their feelings towards Obama, and whether they support his action in a specific area, vs. stepping back and look at the historic nature of the actions.
One that hasn’t been mentioned: Libya. I hate where Libya is right now, but Obama’s approach to coalition building and the global support that was established prior to action stands in stark contrast to Bush’s pseudo-Coalition of the Willing pursuit of the neocon agenda. That was historic, both for the approach he took and how this is playing out (good or bad, it is historic).
Oh one other thing: He won the Nobel. It will be interesting to see how his post-President career will affect that. For now, it is seen as having very little to do with Obama - way too soon. It was more of a rebuke of Bush than anything. But if Obama has a Humanitarian type of legacy - and he appears to have both the time and the inclination - then his winning of that could take on more gravity.
I am really not seeing how this guy is going to be forgotten and not end up on Gov’t Buildings and coins, schools and airports. Not to mention: how straightforward will it be for people to point to Obama, to “brand” him the way that the GOP has branded Reagan and used him as a symbol of Conservative success? Obama will live a strong afterlife as a symbol of possibility and a Progressive agenda to candidates that want to appeal to that approach.
Even if it goes as optimistically as you hope, no. First, looking from a 100-year vantage point, ACA is not a remarkable step, it’s just the latest. But in terms of its historical significance, it’s about up there with SCHIP. Thanks to ACA, a few percentage points were shaved off the uninsured rate. Those are not the achievements that are remembered by history.
Then there’s Iran and Cuba. While it’s great if that all works out, those are third world countries. The top 5 Presidents guided the US through major wars to victory or fundamentally changed their country. What Obama has done witH iran and Cuba doesn’t even come close to comparing with Bush 41’s foreign policy record, much less a top 5 President.
Here are some rankings:
Obama is currently about 17th, which strikes me as about right if you take into account the historic nature of his Presidency. If he was just the 44th white President, he’d be right in the middle.
How soon we forget the auto industry bailouts and the rest of the post-recession stimulus package. Actually, they probably will be completely forgotten but one could definitely consider it a big achievement, which had staunch opposition from certain quarters (it pretty much spawned the Tea Party).
He IS the 44th white president. His mother was white. He was raised as a white child in a white family and white neighborhoods.
Please just stop. Oy.
LC Strawhouse - I have a huge bucket called “Economic Recovery” in the list. So many moving parts.
If it continues to work and is improved and expanded, then it will be looked at in the same way as the start of Medicare and Social Security, both of which have changed much since beginning.
In my opinion, of course.
They’re the most significant and direction-changing foreign policy initiatives in at least thirty years, and maybe more. There have been other achievements since then, but they weren’t particularly original or contrary to conventional wisdom. The boldness of Obama’s approach in Cuba and Iran was going entirely against the conventional wisdom, and trying a wholly new approach. If it works, it will be remembered and emulated for a long, long time.
It will depend mostly on the political biases of the historians.
Leftists ignore Reagan’s economic boom, and lionize Clinton’s.
Rightists lionize Reagan’s economic boom, and ignore Clinton’s.
Nixon’s diplomatic thaw with China was much more important than Obama’s thaw with Cuba, but leftists still hate him.
If the Middle East goes up in flames, leftists will blame Bush, rightists will blame Obama.
I can just see a high school history book 100 years from now:
In 2008 Barack Obama II was elected America’s first black president. Maybe another line about contraversal medical plan policies.
Right. After decades of anachronistic jesse-Helmist red-baiting, Obama dragged his heels for seven years to sort of recognize Cuba, which could have been done in seven days – as Canada did two generations ago with no harm to themselves.
Democrats still tend to be more hawkish than Republicans, and even Clinton, as I recall, staged bombing flights on Iraq on most days of his presidency.
Can you name which president started Medicare? Or Social Security? Or HUD?
I suspect a lot of people here are overemphasizing the importance of ACA because it’s the only signature accomplishment Obama was able to push through but, in the grand scheme of things, it’s not a major accomplishment and also not the kind of thing that gets remembered over time.