Please, American friends, have the most objective analysis possible.
Hubert Vedrine recounts a conversation he had with Kissinger. Hubert Vedrine told Kissinger "obama is an extremely intelligent man, he understood the world."
Kissinger replies to Hubert Védrine, "Yes it's true, but he didn't understand America"
There was nothing about the Obama presidency that really makes one nostalgic for it. Indeed, the irony is that, whatever his personal popularity among Democrats, they actually should have little desire to renew his presidency either.
Fun fact: By the time Mr. Obama left office, 77% of all partisan elective offices across the Federal, state and local levels were in Republican hands. Whatever his charisma among partisan Democrats, it did not translate into votes. Mr. Obama's presidency left the Democratic party a shambles and at a post-WWII low in terms of the number of elective offices it held.
It also set the stage for the Trump presidency. The irony is that the assumption was that because Mr. Obama was the nation's first African-American President, that he would be a unifying force in terms of race relations and the culture generally.
In terms of the latter, Mr. Obama's condescension - "clinging to guns and religion" - infuriated what had previously been a core constituency of the Democratic coalition, i e., blue collar and lower middle income workers. At a time when the economy was transitioning from an manufacturing/extractions base to a service/high tech base, thereby putting pressure on that aforementioned demographic, Mr. Obama's dismissiveness of their concerns and culture drove them into the waiting arms of Mr. Trump. (Over 400 counties that had twice voted for Mr. Obama switched to Mr. Trump.)
Secondly, Mr. Obama was similarly tone deaf on race relations. Not for nothing did the nation's current spate of racial tensions begin on his watch. Ferguson, the ill-fated "beer summit" and all the rest. Mr. Obama did not make any real efforts to have each side understand the other and thus racial tensions festered during his term even as he allegedly embodied the post-racial era in American politics.
In policy terms, Obama was unremarkable, failing to really break with the dominant Reaganite consensus that, ironically, Mr. Trump seems to be bringing to an end. This is best seen in Obamacare.
Mr. Obama's biggest legislative accomplishment, Obamacare was not what he wanted - a national health care system. It was watered down, but then he could not even get - this out of a Democratically controlled Congress - "the government option." It then passed but was wildly unpopular - costing the Democrats their previously mentioned majority - until the GOP eliminated the government mandate, thereby further watering the law down. Only at that point did Obamacare become popular.
After that, Mr. Obama's accomplishments are pretty thin on the ground. Indeed, a study by CRS found that Mr. Obama ranks toward the bottom of post-WWII Presidents in terms of his ability to get legislation through Congress. Ahead of only George H. W. Bush, Carter and Ford.
In terms of foreign policy, Mr. Obama was shallow and feckless. The assassination of Osama bin Laden was something any President would have done and, in any case, was more cathartic than strategically consequential. The Iran deal so full of holes - not requiring inspection of Iranian military facilities, among other things - that Tehran had no trouble conforming to it. Beyond that, there were no accomplishments to speak of.
In terms of the economy, it grew under Mr. Obama, but well below historic norms. Indeed, Mr. Obama famously said that the nation would have to get used to 2% or less growth. The economy then grew 3% in the early part of the Trump presidency. (Note: I am no fan of Mr. Trump. I merely relay the data.)
Add it all up, and Mr. Obama was merely one in a line of largely inconsequential presidencies than began with Mr. Clinton's. He was a mediocre figure who was less than the sum of his parts and who did not fundamentally change the country in any positive way and, indeed, was on balance, a net subtraction in terms of fostering better race relations. In short, Obama's reputation far exceeds the reality of his time in the WH.
On top of being Hindu and ruining the one thing America was good at - software development/computing - by giving it away to Hindus who are not the least bit interested in anything other than milking you for money on the sly (their culture is of opium dealing until they bankrupt you) - he also simply gave America away to the overpopulating groups (Hindus mostly but Africans and other middle easterners as well - under the guise of being Mexican/south American)
All of that you could have achieved easily by having no president at all for those 8 years. You probably would have saved a megaton of money too.
(The underlying cause is that you cannot rely on people with small/tiny brains to grow into being large-scale-thinking - they simply don't have the capacity, and it is not discriminatory to let them live the way they live, even if they shoot each other habitually; leave the door open for those disadvantaged but brainy to exit such Ghetto surroundings, be they in the USA or Afghanistan, and leave those who only know how to sell drugs and kill for a living to their destiny, such as it is based on their affinities and abilities)
He did 100% what he could for this country considering the people he was surrounded by, the endless road blocks, and hoops he was forced to jump through. There are no miracle workers in politics. Nobody is perfect, but they can be good.
He was a terrible leader, easily the most divisive president we've had in the last 50 years or more. He obviously wasn't qualified going in, but to his credit he was young and aware enough to learn on the fly. He was a much better speaker, especially in regards to subjects he clearly didn't know anything about because he could mince words to sound well-versed when actually saying nothing of value. I would say he personally was better than what we have now, but it's mostly the exact same people from his administration who are in important positions now that are screwing everything up, so it's difficult to ignore the likelihood that what's going on now isn't the same thing he would've tried if he thought he could get away with it at the time. The only certain difference is the empty suit giving BS speeches would be capable of stringing coherent sentences together.
No, and I say this as someone who voted for Obama twice. He was charismatic and popular, but he ran the country poorly and caused more problems than was needed. Though I'd say his first term was better than his second term. I mean, the thing that sucks though was, he really was the "best" choice at the time. Hillary was and always will be a disaster, and John McCain wasn't experienced enough, or ready, to be president. Of the options, Obama was the only one who at least *seemed* fit for the job. But as we can say in hindsight, he was a HUGE MASSIVE letdown and is remembered now for nothing more than Obamacare, dancing on Ellen, and calling Kanye West a jackass. If not for Trump, I probably wouldn't have voted in 2016 at all.
Republicans, defying logic, would have you believe he was a failure because he couldn't overcome a uniquely obstructionist senate that managed to derail many of his most popular aims and block nominations to the federal court system, including the Supreme Court.
Less than one nominee per year was subject to a cloture filing in the 40 years before Obama took office. From 2009-13, the number of nominees subject to a cloture filing jumped to over seven per year.
The Democrats never had a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate, the closest they came was for just 72 days, and they still needed the support of two independents. Bernie Sanders was one, but the other was Joe Lieberman, who endorsed John McCain for president in 2008 and single-handedly blocked the government option from the ACA.
He deserves credit for the Affordable Care Act, which resulted in many Americans having health insurance for the first time. Of course the legislation had to be watered down to be passed into law, which is what led to the many problems associated with the act. Any judgement of Obama as a President has to take into account the increasing partisanship of American politics during his term.
In comparison to other Presidents he was clearly the best since Clinton, an unpleasant man who nonetheless was the last President to produce a balanced budget.
He was a good president, but he could have been better - especially if the GOP had let him which they didn't because their electorate thought "We gotta get that n*gger out of The White House as soon as we can and get a REAL (meaning "white") American in there!"
No. You must keep in mind that American media will cover for democrats all day long on their knees. Biden already sucks massively too and I'm sure he'll be remembered fondly in history.
Obama was charismatic and nothing more. Good for optics, which matters more for the average dumbass voter, rather than the dogshit policy and messaging. His presidency was a huge turning point in race relations, and now some people say racism is as bad today as it was in the 1960s.
26.4K opinions shared on Society & Politics topic.
No. He started the whole hate the police and hate the military thing. He started making everything about race, he got us into bad deal with Iran and joined that ridiculous Paris Climate thing. He bankrolled a solar panel company that went bankrupt, his Cash For Clunkers did nothing to help but drove up the price of used cars. I could go on.
I think he was the most sneaky U. S president among the others. He seemed like he will have more balanced politics and he will approach more friendly and peaceful however he was actually one of the biggest reason especially why situations in Syria got messed up.
George Bush and Donald Trump were actually more direct and clear compared to this guy, Obama was like.. he was calling everyone as his "friend" but at the same time he was making plans behind their backs. George Bush and Donald Trump were actually more loud and clear about what they want to do, so that's why I actually appreciate them more but it doesn't mean I see them as smart, both of them were "peasents" of USA, some kind of county boys but Obama was not.
Long story short, I see Democrats as more sneaky and Republicans as more honest and clear but more ignorant and dumb lol
no. domestically he made the presidency into a more centralized power by passing executive orders too often and weakening the checks and balances on power. specifically DACA was totally illegal he just invented legislation out of thin air
internationally... holy shit he was awful. russia invaded crimea and he did nothing, china invaded the phillipines and he did nothing. and he empowered iran by removing tariffs on them and for what? so they could get a nuke
Fuck no. He did nothing good for America. His crime bill was devastating to blacks, his NAFTA was a disaster and he allowed China to fuck us in the ass with no lube over unfair trade. In addition he was such a pussy he paid a country that hates our guts to not develop nukes. He was so fucking stupid to actually trust Iran. Some will say “but it was their money to begin with.” YOU DONT GIVE AN ENEMY MONEY FOR ANY REASON
I don't agree with everything he did in office, but overall he was an objectively excellent president. He's certainly the last president we've had that behaved in a way worthy of respect.
He was elected because he is black. He was popular because people felt guilty that blacks are at the bottom of society. Race relations under him plummeted and paled in comparison to when George Bush (Yes, that guy) left office. He was given the nobel peace prize before he had a chance to do anything
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No he wasn't. The Dear Colleague letter is a violation of the 5th amendment, he bombed Americans and civilians alike in the middle east, armed terrorists with weapons much like Biden is doing now, Obamacare is a mess, stole more from our paychecks, did nothing about the patriot act, started the gun control trend and I can go on.
Obama’s thoughts were, since he couldn’t bring the third world countries up to the American dream. Hr would take American dreams down to the third world country levels, Sleepy Joe is following his game book.
Lets see... Obama, Hillary, the DOJ, and others played the race card when in fact he, Obama could have rose the status of all blacks and all he did was lpay that race yard. So he is was and is the 2nd worst only to Jimmy Carter
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