From an outside perspective, I think he's been doing a good job, but constantly undermined and hindered by factors not within his control, and then being blamed for them unjustly. There were always A LOT of people who wanted to see him fail, and have been doing EVERYTHING they could to stop him, and this is on all levels of society here, I'm not just talking big politics.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

If we //really// wanna get down to it, all presidents are subpar. Obama is just less subpar than others.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

Maybe he's not as bad as I like to think he is, but compared to what? Pretty much every Presidential candidate I've seen in my life was pretty shitty. Just. . . Shitty.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

Amen.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

Obviously. He's added 6 trillion dollars to the US debt. I really don't care about his alleged accomplishments (other than getting Bin Laden), they don't make up for 6 trillion dollars.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

Most of his accomplishments are not "alleged." All you have to do is research from a reliable source and you'll find them proven. You dont have to agree with something for it to be considered an accomplishment. And not agreeing does nit mean you should discredit it, either. Also, how much money a president spends does not always determine his worth, rather why the money was spent and what unique situations led to it ( like the Great Recession, for example).

by Anonymous 11 years ago

I understand he can't magically solve everything but he's not the best president we've ever had.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

I agree. He didn't do anything drastically awful but he didn't do anything memorably good either.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

Ending the war in Iraq, bailing out our auto industry which is now back on top, creating over 4 million jobs, major health care plan passed, giving the go ahead for the mission that found Bin Laden. You might not find those all good, but are they not memorable? They'll definitely be in history textbooks.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

It really depends on who writes the textbook. Bailing outs and universal healthcare would not be written about favorably by people Libertarians or Republicans.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

Even if it's not favorable, that doesn't mean it is not memorable, though from your perspective, I guess not everything I listed would be memorably good. Still, there has to be //something// he did that you find good and memorable, like perhaps being the first president to openly endorse gay rights while in office. Also, the healthcare plan isn't really universal.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

Bail outs and Universal heathcare are both two different ways of throwing money at problems. Neither of those things are especially are really that new or interesting. I'm not saying Obama never did anything good. He did a lot of good things. It's just that he won't be remembered like Reagan, Kennedy, or FDR. However, maybe that will change if he gets re-elected.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

I beg to differ. He will be remembered like those presidents, if only for the social chabges he brougt: being black and coming out in support of gay marriage. The healthcare plan is huge news, and he'll been known as The Great Recession president like RER is known as the Great Depression president.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

* changes *FDR

by Anonymous 11 years ago

He will be remembered as the first black president, I do not dispute that. RER????

by Anonymous 11 years ago

Sorry for the numerous typos in that last reply (the woes of responding with my phone in a rushed manner). RER=FDR.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

See, I just view most of those things as average accomplishments. The war in Iraq was scheduled to end during his presidency, he didn't really decide that. Bailing our auto industries out was a good move, I'll give him that. Creating 4 million jobs sounds great, but when you look at it more closely, he spend over a trillion dollars in stimulus to create them and still didn't lower unemployment to under 8%. I'm not saying he's the antichrist or anything, I'm just kinda disappointed that someone who campaigned in hope and change didn't actually change that much. That's why I won't vote to re elect him. He hasn't been good enough

by Anonymous 11 years ago

That's fair. To me, average accomplishments make him an average president, not a subpar one. I agree with his fundamental principles, and i can see how you wouldn't find those things great, but to me, I still find them agreeable.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

Also, if you say he hasn't changed "all that much," that is a truly broad and oversimplified assertion to make. Some more research can prove otherwise. We will not and cannot always feel an immediate change (I can name one, though. I can stay on my mother's healthcare until 26 while I pursue my college education). The economy is unfathomably hard to fix, and i in no way expected that to happen in 4 years. I'm just glad we are not at 10 unemployment anymore. Also, people jump to not reelecting a president when they don't feel change in four years, and i feel like that might hinder change in a way because the new guy starts all over, and when we don't //feel// change that could very well be there (like a new healthcare plan that is not in full throttle yet), we vote out, and it becomes a cycle. I'm not saying all of that about you, but still.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

I'm not saying that he's solved all of America's problems, but I do think he's put us on the right track (definitely socially, and I'm fairly certain fiscally as well).

by Anonymous 11 years ago