Is Obama overrated and no longer likable?

[Bootes Void]

Bill Clinton only became disliked because of his wife running in 2016 ( and 2008 may not have helped as much) and challenged Sanders. Had that never happens, I doubt Bill Clinton would become unpopular(minus the whole Epstein thing)

[President Johnson]

The Dems relation with Obama reminds me of how they treated Bill Clinton. Bill was a rising star represented the future of the Dem party in the '80s/'90s, but then the party moved further to the left and now people think of him as a Con. Dem; due to his opposition to programs including universal healthcare and his tough on crime stance. I think Obama will be remembered similarly in the next decade. Even some Dems in Illinois I believe were opposed to the naming of a school after Obama because of his tough immigration policy.

A fair point, though Obama remains overwhelmingly popular among Democrats. The "online left" is certainly not representative of the Democratic base at large.

Furthermore, Bill Clinton was actually very popular in the years after leaving office.

[Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers]

Just remember he did tell D's to vote Biden when Biden was loosing the nomination

Biden wasn't the Landslide Biden we thought he would be, Bernie or Booker whom dropped out too early could have produced the same or even better map than Biden did, some of the buyers remorse is due to Afghanistan, not eradicating COVID and not extending Unemployment benefits.
So, some of the faults of Biden has been on Obama shoulder, he told non Berne people to vote for Biden in the primary, pre Tara Reade

Right now it looks like a Neutral Environment, but what happens if Afghanistan falls to Taliban once US leaves, Americans are blames

QU has Biden at 46/43 but other polls have him at 51/46%, I shudder to think what a red wave look like, don't put it out of your mind 2014/ D's were leading on GENERIC BALLOT and a red wave developed at the end

[H.E. VOLODYMYR ZELENKSYY]

He’s been overrated for 10-11 years now, but if you think he’s not likable (regardless of whether or not you like him) you really live in a bubble.

[Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers]

Afghanistan is all on the news this can the Benghazi or Waterloo of Biden Administration and Benghazi was of Obama, I don't see how Ds are successful in Midterms if Taliban take over Kabul

[Joe Republic]

Bill Clinton only became disliked because of his wife running in 2016 ( and 2008 may not have helped as much) and challenged Sanders. Had that never happens, I doubt Bill Clinton would become unpopular(minus the whole Epstein thing)

Fewer Democrats today (especially with the generational shift) have a tolerance for Bill Clinton's treatment of women over the years.

[Badger]

Obama along with JFK are the two of the most overrated politicians ever , due to the fact they were absolutely adored by the media in unprecedented ways and have been treated as great presidents despite being failures foreign policy  wise and medicore domestic policy wise

JFK might well be the only president who literally saved the world. I would not call his handling of the Cuban Missile Crisis a "foreign policy failure." Sure you could argue the Bay of Pigs led to it, but that was an Eisenhower operation JFK was saddled with, and it was a pretty poor plan that was probably doomed from the start. More importantly, JFK learned from the experience and that's why he handled the Cuban Missile Crisis the way he did, not just blindly trusting the military brass. And his domestic policy barely got off the ground before he was shot in the head. He is a bit overrated, yes, but Ronald Reagan is way more overrated and I know you ain't gonna agree with that one!

The reason Bay of Pigs failed though was cause he failed to go through with it all the way due to the fact he didnt give the proper air support. That is what led to the Cuban Missle Crises in the first place and required the US to make concessions we didnt have to make if not for the failure with the bay of pigs.

Also remember JFK is the President who got us involved in Vietnam as well

1.The Bay of Pigs was an insane idea that would have failed miserably no matter what.  At best, if the U.S had tried to save the mission it would have led to another quagmire like Vietnam.  The Cubans behind the Bay of Pigs operation were hated in Cuba.

2.Eisenhower got the United States involved in Vietnam/Indochina after the French pulled out.

Eisenhower was also the first to refer to the 'domino theory' even though he likely knew it was nonsense.

This. The reason the Bay of Pigs failed was because the CIA and Pentagon were convinced that the Cuban population were ready to rise up on mass at the first sign of military resistance to Castro, which turned out to be completely untrue. There was resistance to Castro, sure, but very very few Cubans wanted to return the Batista era that the Miami refugees represented. Aerial bombardment absolutely, and would only have made us look even worse than we did by killing Cuban troops and, surely, civilians as well.

Second, one needs to really make a distinction between Kennedy having a few thousand military advisors in Vietnam versus LBJ deploying over half a million troops there after the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution. That's not apples and oranges, that's raisins and watermelons. Even if one doesn't believe former Senate majority leader Mike Mansfield statement that Kennedy privately told him he planned on getting out of Vietnam after the election, to blame him for the ultimate maelstrom this country suffered because of lbj's and Nixon's much much much more interventionist policies is rather ludicrous.

Yes. I did make a mistake though. Truman was the first President to get the United States involved in Vietnam.  First, he rejected Ho Chi Minh's pleas, and then he sent military advisors to assist the French.  Impossible to know for sure, but it's likely the United States and Ho Chi Minh could have come to some arrangement if the U.S 'advised' France to leave Indochina.

No longer directly related to the initial question, but that's actually something Truman got badly wrong and - in all likelyhood - wouldn't have happened with FDR. Roosevelt was always a staunch opponent of colonialism and had major disagreements with Churchill on the matter. Truman unfortunately didn't leave 'Nam alone and determine their own future out of false sympathy with the French. Perhaps otherwise we wouldn't have lost 60k Americans and 2+ million Vietnamese in a senseless war. Mr. Nixon may have never been prez and Johnson's Great Society would have been fulfilled, perhaps preventing Reagan from ever sitting in the WH either.

Tying literally a few military advisors Truman sent French to lbj's massive post Tonkin Gulf resolution influx of over half a million troops on the ground nearly two decades later is stretching causation far far past the breaking point of realism.

[American2020]

The Dems relation with Obama reminds me of how they treated Bill Clinton. Bill was a rising star represented the future of the Dem party in the '80s/'90s, but then the party moved further to the left and now people think of him as a Con. Dem; due to his opposition to programs including universal healthcare and his tough on crime stance. I think Obama will be remembered similarly in the next decade. Even some Dems in Illinois I believe were opposed to the naming of a school after Obama because of his tough immigration policy.

A fair point, though Obama remains overwhelmingly popular among Democrats. The "online left" is certainly not representative of the Democratic base at large.

Furthermore, Bill Clinton was actually very popular in the years after leaving office.

I agree with you about the Twitter Left.

https://twitter.com/American3141592/status/1420208842399305729

https://twitter.com/American3141592/status/1425879919192535041

The Twitter Left uses to hate the Democrats. Obama is accused of war crimes.

[roxas11]

likability is subjective so im not even going to debate that one but when it comes to idea that obama is overrated

love him or hate him I believe he is definitely an important president who accomplished a lot in the office. that is very different compared to someone like JFK who struggled to pass anything and many of the things he wanted to do had only got passed after his death


1. American Recovery act,
2. Affordable Health Care Act
3. Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal Act of 2010,
4. Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform
5. Lilly Ledbetter act

In my opinion the ACA is the most significant piece of legislation from either party since the New Deal. That fact alone makes Obama presidency a big deal and that is the main reason why I can never agree with the premise that he is somehow overrated

plus Obama was the first president since Reagan to have his VP get elected after him and continue or expand on many of his policies
 
   

[Mr. Smith]

I never thought highly of him. He was flipping and flopping with shameless panache even back in the primary days of '08, and ultimately never seemed too interested in taking a stand if it got in the way of being liked by everyone.

[TheDeadFlagBlues]

I loathe him because I admired him when he was President and beforehand also. This stance is more than a little unfair. One did not have to be particularly astute to recognize that Barack Obama was self-centered narcissist full of platitudes, lacking substance in favor of style. This is not particularly troubling if he is graded by the standards of politicians, almost all of whom are venal pigs. At the very least Barack Obama is interesting. He was a mediocre President, perhaps even a poor one, but at least he attempted rapprochement with Cuba and Iran, expanded the rolls of Medicaid, and did not seek to impose austerity.

However, this reality poses a problem to those who embraced the stories that Barack Obama told about himself. He was going to clean up politics! He was an outsider! He wasn't going to make transactional deals! And on it goes. This mythology is so clearly a lie and one that Obama had no trouble telling the public. It is hard to countenance brazen lies and Obama is a weaver of tall tales, of fictions. I think this is why many on this forum now despise him.

[brucejoel99]

Maureen Dowd is getting absolutely ratio'd on Twitter for her own response to this thread:

https://twitter.com/nytopinion/status/1426551827118665736

[Mr. Illini]

I swear there is some chosen amnesia going on in this thread. Obama felt like he was entitled to the Presidency in 2008? That is one of the most ridiculous things I’ve ever heard.

In reality, he had to claw his way to the nomination. He was up against the Clinton machine and the entire party establishment started the race behind her (with some flipping only after Obama started to win). I am not a Hillary hater, but it was categorically, without a doubt, her that felt entitled to the nomination.

Oh and because he beat her in 2008, he is really responsible for Hillary Clinton’s general election loss in 2016. Really awful of him to run and be chosen by the voters.

I’m not going to claim he’s our greatest president ever (not close) but some of this stuff is just absurd.

[roxas11]

Maureen Dowd is getting absolutely ratio'd on Twitter for her own response to this thread:

https://twitter.com/nytopinion/status/1426551827118665736

I just read the article and in the comment section these are some of the top rated responses to it


"Who cares. President Obama did his job with class, smarts and dignity. Not a hint of personal scandal.  He was a young man when he left office and still is. Sure he got rich, good for him. He has gotten rich while still maintaining that class and dignity and still not a hint of personal scandal. Oh, if we had more like him"


"He threw a big 60th birthday. I hope to myself. What is the problem. Many people do. He spent a lot of years serving our country and working very hard - as an attorney and in public service" Let him enjoy being 60.


"Obama has the right do do whatever he wants now. It's not for Dowd or anyone else to judge the man. Optics don't matter for him. He didn't break the law. He can invite, or disinvite, anyone he wants. Was Obama a perfect President? Of course not. But he cared. He was too deferential to the GOP, and that was a mistake. And he didn't get gun control done after the massacre at Sandy Hook But I am alive today because of the ACA, which I proudly call Obamacare. Obama was the best President America has had in at least 50 years. I challenge anyone to dispute that fact with facts".



The article itself is ridiculous and the claim that obama is somwhow just like the queen of france Marie Antoinette makes no sense at all because Unlike a retired former president like Obama, Marie Antoinette was the sitting Queen of France when her people was upset at her for having Lavish Parties while they were all starving