44’s wicked hand
obama’s emerging legacy …
Barack Obama was ushered into office to the echoes of “Yes, we can!”
The 44th president of the United States played a wicked hand of cards during his groundbreaking eight years in office. A wicked good or a wicked bad hand depends upon your perspective.
Approaching four years after the end of his tenure in the Oval Office, former President Obama’s legacy appears to be emerging. This legacy is becoming more apparent thanks to the dramatic contrast between Obama and his successor, the indomitable Donald J. Trump.
So what is Barack Obama’s emerging legacy?
No Drama. It starts with the stark difference the former U.S. Senator from Illinois brought to his job - the “no drama Obama” perception. Unlike President Trump, President Obama is and was not bombastic, unempathetic, or prone to lying. This was not a president to embellish or chronically deceive. The Obama Administration was lauded for its relative stability and predictability, mainly taken in context with the current White House occupant, probably making 44 look even better today.
Obamacare. Perhaps the signature accomplishment of his two terms in the White House was the passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare. Signed into law on March 23, 2010, it significantly overhauled and expanded the U.S. healthcare system to give patients and their families greater access to healthcare in the United States while also affording them several protections they did not have. The most notable protection was the right to insurance coverage for pre-existing medical conditions, affecting some 180 million Americans and their families. The Obama Administration successfully fought off severe legal challenges to Obamacare. The most notable challenge was the 2012 National Federation of Independent Business v. Sibelius case, in which the Supreme Court ruled by a narrow 5-4 majority that the law’s requirement everyone obtain health insurance was constitutional. However, a seven-justice majority overturned another Obamacare requirement: that states expand their Medicaid coverage, thus making expansion an option for every state. By the end of Obama’s presidency, it is estimated that more than 20 million people had insurance who did not have insurance before, cutting in half the number of uninsured Americans, according to many studies. Roundly criticized in its early years for the tax feature of the Act, the rocky rollout to the internet, and the impact on local insurance markets and states, Obamacare has gained in popularity over time.
Economic Crisis. Coming out of the George W. Bush Administration, President Obama inherited an American economy nearing economic Armageddon. Banks and companies, many thought too big to fail, were failing. Jobs were disappearing, and the national unemployment rate was racing to nearly 10 percent. Fearing hyperinflation, explosive national debt, and other fiscal maladies, many Republicans in Congress opposed approving significant monetary, fiscal, and financial corrections proposed by the White House and Democrats to deal with the growing economic crisis. The passing of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 led to the appointment of a strong and determined new chair of the Federal Reserve, Ben Bernanke, and a bailout of the auto industry, including General Motors and Chrysler. One-third of the funds from the Act were used for a middle-class tax cut. One-third of the funds went to bridge, highway, and infrastructure projects. The remaining one-third of funds went to local and state governments to ward off public employee layoffs during the crisis. No House Republicans voted for passage of the bill, and only three Republican Senators voted for final passage. The auto companies would repay their loans, and by the beginning of 2017, Mr. Obama would leave Mr. Trump with a much-improved national economy and job market.
Dodd-Frank. Dodd-Frank was known more formally as The Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010. Signed into law on July 21, 2010, Dodd-Frank was designed to prevent economic meltdowns like President Obama inherited from George W. Bush when he took office in 2009. Dodd-Frank required “too big to fail” financial institutions to protect against significant losses by maintaining higher critical capital levels. The Act also reduced banks’ ability to invest in risky securities. The Act also created the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. This new federal agency monitors the lending practices of banks, mortgage companies, and “payday” lenders who make short-term, high-interest loans to mostly low-income clientele. On the final conference committee vote, three House Republicans and 19 Democrats voted against the measure 237 to 192. In the Senate, the final vote was 60 to 39. One Democrat, Russ Feingold of Wisconsin, voted against the bill. Still, three Republican Senators (Brown of Massachusetts and Maine’s two Senators, Collins and Snowe) voted for the measure in their chamber, thus making it possible for Dodd-Frank to avoid a Senate filibuster.
The Paris Agreement. In his final year in office, President Obama signed The Paris Agreement on climate, committing the United States to join more than 180 other nations in managing global warming by reducing greenhouse gas emissions and financing their generation over time. Those signing the Agreement are known to account for some 55% of the world’s greenhouse emissions.
Bin Laden. On May 2, 2011, President Obama announced that CIA operatives and U.S. military special forces located and killed Osama bin Laden, founder and leader of the global Islamist terror group Al-Qaeda, in his hideout in Pakistan. The successful raid on bin Laden’s armed compound was launched from nearby Afghanistan. The terror leader was the mastermind behind the tragic September 11, 2001 attack on the World Trade Center in New York City. Osama bin Laden’s body was buried at sea less than 24 hours after his death by Islamic tradition.
Three Supreme Court Nominations. During his presidency, Barack Obama had three opportunities to do something all presidents want to do for their legacies - appoint a Justice to the high bench. This president got to nominate three jurists for three open seats. Justice David Souter retired in 2009 and was replaced by Federal Appeals Court Judge Sonia Sotomayor, the first Latina nominee. Justice John Paul Stevens retired the following year and was replaced by U.S. Solicitor General Elena Kagan. Sotomayor was approved on a 60 to 31 Senate vote, while Kagan was approved in 2010 by a 63 to 37 margin. When Justice Antonin J. Scalia passed away unexpectedly on February 13, 2016, President Obama was allowed to nominate U.S. Appeals Court Chief Judge Merrick B. Garland to the bench. His nomination “failed” when Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky never took up the nomination before President Obama left office more than ten months later.
War Fatigue. In addition to the economic crisis President Obama inherited from his predecessor, President Bush, two ongoing wars from the war on terror. Iraq and Afghanistan. To get America off of a “perpetual war footing” and to overcome what he viewed as American public war fatigue, 44 over reduced the number of American troops stationed in these two countries. He attempted to shift the burden of defending against ISIL and the Taliban, respectively, to those governments. The record was mixed, but Obama kept us from getting into more wars on his watch. This effort was not without blame. Congressional Republicans criticized President Obama for issuing a “red line” mandate to Syria’s brutal dictator, Bashar al-Assad, not to use chemical weapons in the fight against insurgents from his own country. When al-Assad did deploy chemical weapons in his own country against his rebellious citizens, Obama backed off and did not send in air strikes as threatened. Instead, Russia’s Vladimir Putin offered to convince al-Assad not to use chemical weapons again, and President Obama took up the Russian leader's offer.
Iran Nuclear Agreement. President Obama negotiated with the Ayatollahs of Iran to stop developing nuclear weapons for at least a while in exchange for releasing Iran from United Nations-imposed economic sanctions if Iran also agreed to surrender 97 percent of its enriched uranium. Many other countries allied with the United States were parties to the Agreement, which remained controversial throughout and after the remainder of President Obama’s presidency.
Trans-Pacific Partnership. Obama also negotiated with 12 Pacific Basin nations to increase and promote trade within the region, thus significantly enhancing America’s trade opportunities with those participating nations. The TPP, as it was known, was never ratified by the United States Senate.
Diplomatic Relations with Communist Cuba. President Obama restored diplomatic relations with the Communist government of Cuba and the Castro brothers in December 2014 to much fanfare. The Miami Cuban community in South Florida was aghast at the policy decision, and even more so when President Obama himself visited the island in 2016.
“A shellacking.” When he was elected president in 2008, Barack Obama enjoyed a House and Senate Democratic majority starting in 2009 with the 111th Congress. That majority was squandered, however, when Republicans took over House control with the 2010 mid-term elections, thus ending unified Democrat control of the White House, U.S. Senate, and U.S. House of Representatives. The GOP also picked up seven Senate seats but was shy of majority control of that chamber. President Obama referred to the Democrats’ mid-term loss as a “shellacking.” Obama’s legislative agenda took a fatal beating with the 2014 mid-term election of nine Republican seats and by holding their House majority, thus giving the Grand Old Party control of both houses of Congress, even though President Obama was re-elected by a comfortable margin in 2012.
Sequestration. To raise taxes and cut spending, President Obama and then-House Speaker John Boehner negotiated behind closed doors to see if they could achieve some meaningful deficit reductions that were politically palatable. With their new majority control of the U.S. House, Republicans had been pushing for massive budget reductions to bring the spiraling deficit under control. House Democrats were equally pushing back against those cuts, fearful that recent economic improvements were too unstable to support such drastic expense-cutting measures. Obama had long wanted and campaigned for deficit reduction to include new taxes on high-income households. Negotiations between two determined political leaders broke off. Boehner became a casualty, partly because of his work behind the scenes with the President when Paul Ryan took over as House Speaker in 2015. The first round of sequestrations agreed upon earlier, took effect without the necessary budget cutting (one-half from domestic programs and one-half from defense spending). These automatic budget cuts were politically painful to members of both parties and were deemed a colossal failure in the end.
Executive Orders. When Obama realized that the Republican-controlled House, Senate, or both would not cooperate on his legislative agenda, the President issued Executive Orders to achieve his policy objectives. Among the many acts he unilaterally took, instituted background checks for gun purchases at gun shows over the ample objections of Republicans and National Rifle Association members; raised the minimum wage for federal contract employees to $10.10 an hour; issued the Deferred Action for Parents of Americans (DACA) order, which would have allowed undocumented immigrants whose children were American citizens to stay in the United States; and, signed an order banning discrimination by federal contractors on the basis sexual orientation or gender identity. This strategy of governing by Executive Order would pave the way for another president to follow in Obama’s footsteps - President Donald J. Trump, a strategy Democrats have rued the day over ever since 45 took office in January 2017.
Diversity. The Barack Obama White House and presidential administration were arguably one of the—if not the—most diverse crowds to inhabit 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. For example, his first cabinet comprised seven women and ten minorities in a 22-member group. Published research also demonstrates that more than 50 percent of President Obama’s Senate-confirmed appointments were made up of women and minorities, more than any previous or current president.
First African-American POTUS. Oh, yeah, and there is that, too! And, no, we do not believe that he was born in Kenya or is of the Muslim faith, any more than we think that Donald Trump is a Russian puppet of Vladimir Putin or an Agnostic - absent any hard evidence on either President to the contrary.
Barack Obama’s legacy as the 44th president of the United States is still emerging and will do so, if tradition holds for America’s commander-in-chiefs, over the next few decades.
To Learn More About President Obama’s Post Presidency
Visit www.obamafoundation.org
This much we know already, the “no drama Obama” governing philosophy is sorely missed by many in the Trump era. More importantly, Barack Obama’s adage to “don’t do stupid sh*t” is more admired than ever. Put simply, he is a guy you would want to share a beer with.
We think history will judge him kindly.