Opinion of Barack Obama

[TDAS04]

Well?

[dw93]

Tilt FF. His presidency will face far more scrutiny in the long run than it currently does.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

HP, but not as bad as Biden, who is doing serious institutional damage to our country. I freaking yearn for Obama compared to the present administration.

[Goldwater]

HP, but not as bad as Biden, who is doing serious institutional damage to our country. I freaking yearn for Obama compared to the present administration.

[TML]

He was good on the campaign trail, but not so much once he got into office. In fact, I sometimes wonder if Michael Moore's 2014 prediction about Obama's legacy - that he would only be remembered by history as nothing more than being the first black president - will actually come true...

[heatcharger]

Obama was so cool. It felt like we had a cool president who did March Madness brackets and posted on Facebook (novel at the time!). Between Hillary, McCain and Romney he was always the coolest guy in the room. Millennials couldn’t help but be charmed by him.

I voted HP.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

FF

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

HP, easily.

Wasted a trifecta on little more than passing Cato Institute health care reform. Gave George W. Bush's domestic spying and torture programs a pass, along with refusing to take action on the largest financial fraud in our country's history. Oversaw what can only be considered foreign policy failures on Russia, China, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, and Libya. Failed to address growing domestic problems, including right-wing  extremism and wealth inequality. Left the Democratic party a wreck with a weak bench. (I think better of Biden and Hillary than many people seem to, but the reason they were the post-Obama nominees has more do with Obama's failure to lead than their own strengths.) Closed out his term by refusing to stand up to Mitch McConnel and ushering in the election of President Trump. Then went and hung out with his billionaire buddies and bought a giant mansion on Martha's Vinyard.

While not without his own flaws, Biden has been a far better President.

[Benjamin Frank 2.0]

HP, easily.

Wasted a trifecta on little more than passing Cato Institute health care reform. Gave George W. Bush's domestic spying and torture programs a pass, along with refusing to take action on the largest financial fraud in our country's history. Oversaw what can only be considered foreign policy failures on Russia, China, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, and Libya. Failed to address growing domestic problems, including right-wing  extremism and wealth inequality. Left the Democratic party a wreck with a weak bench. (I think better of Biden and Hillary than many people seem to, but the reason they were the post-Obama nominees has more do with Obama's failure to lead than their own strengths.) Closed out his term by refusing to stand up to Mitch McConnel and ushering in the election of President Trump. Then went and hung out with his billionaire buddies and bought a giant mansion on Martha's Vinyard.

While not without his own flaws, Biden has been a far better President.

It's really a myth that Obama refused to take action on the financial fraud although Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner certainly didn't help. The reality is that in addition to one banker going to jail, there was at least one other trial that resulted in an acquittal. The fact is that proving intent in white collar crime cases is extremely difficult.

Obama certainly could and should have done more to try to change that (including removing intent and tying the crime to negligence or harm) but that would not have altered the criminality of the bankers' actions that occurred prior to any change in the law.

[Lambsbread]

FF on balance. Squandered the first two years of his presidency (not entirely his own fault because recovering from the recession was rightfully his biggest priority) and was then handicapped for the rest of his presidency by Republicans who would've gladly sent the country off a cliff if only to score political points against him. Not a fan of his use of drones, either. However, he was the right leader for the time and a lot of the things he failed to do were the result of his opposition, not for lack of want. Biden seems to be the opposite: unwilling to really go into the trenches for big, sweeping legislation because he's afraid of burning political capital.

I think if we could amend the constitution and have Obama run again in 2024, he would win in a landslide.

[Vice President Christian Man]

I’d have more respect for him if from the get-go he admitted that he’d govern like Bill Clinton and not FDR 2.0. His 2008 campaign was one of the strongest in recent memory, but his legislative record was disappointing and that frustration fueled Trump and other far-right politicians. He was better than McCain, but that’s about as far as I’m going to go.

[President Johnson]

Massive FF

Dark Brandon is the better president though.

[MR DARK BRANDON]

Massive FF

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

HP, easily.

Wasted a trifecta on little more than passing Cato Institute health care reform. Gave George W. Bush's domestic spying and torture programs a pass, along with refusing to take action on the largest financial fraud in our country's history. Oversaw what can only be considered foreign policy failures on Russia, China, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, and Libya. Failed to address growing domestic problems, including right-wing  extremism and wealth inequality. Left the Democratic party a wreck with a weak bench. (I think better of Biden and Hillary than many people seem to, but the reason they were the post-Obama nominees has more do with Obama's failure to lead than their own strengths.) Closed out his term by refusing to stand up to Mitch McConnel and ushering in the election of President Trump. Then went and hung out with his billionaire buddies and bought a giant mansion on Martha's Vinyard.

While not without his own flaws, Biden has been a far better President.

It's really a myth that Obama refused to take action on the financial fraud although Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner certainly didn't help. The reality is that in addition to one banker going to jail, there was at least one other trial that resulted in an acquittal. The fact is that proving intent in white collar crime cases is extremely difficult.

It's not that difficult  - as William K. Black pointed out repeatedly and publicly, there was immense fraud in the mortgage industry, and fraud is a crime. White-collar crimes in the S&L collapse were successfully prosecuted at scale. What happened with the mortgage crisis is that the Obama administration allocated fewer resources to one of the largest financial frauds in global history than the Bush administration did to investigate Enron. Then Obama's Treasury Secretary and Attorney General went back to work for the very people they had chosen not to investigate. It's a breathtaking display of corruption at the highest levels of American government, not made one bit better for being technically legal (unlike Trump's gross corruption and flagrant lawbreaking).

[S019]

FF

[Blue3]

Tilt FF. His presidency will face far more scrutiny in the long run than it currently does.

This is where I am now, too.

[dw93]

Tilt FF. His presidency will face far more scrutiny in the long run than it currently does.

This is where I am now, too.

The way Obama is viewed now is similar to how Bill Clinton was viewed a decade ago, and we all know Clinton's stock fell since then, abet for different reasons than I think Obama's will.

[All Along The Watchtower]

It’s complicated.

[OSR stands with Israel]

Tilt FF. His presidency will face far more scrutiny in the long run than it currently does.

This is where I am now, too.

The way Obama is viewed now is similar to how Bill Clinton was viewed a decade ago, and we all know Clinton's stock fell since then, abet for different reasons than I think Obama's will.

Bill Clinton in 2012 was arguably viewed in higher regard than Obama now as even progressive media used to praise him and by many Americans he was viewed as the last president who presided over a good economy.

[Senator Incitatus]

Lean HP but not much worse than the baseline political striver. A less cynical Buttigieg.

[President Johnson]

Kind of shocking he's under water now in a forum that is predominantly liberal or to the left of center.

[TDAS04]

Kind of shocking he's under water now in a forum that is predominantly liberal or to the left of center.

And Obama was beloved on Atlas during his presidency, which certainly doesn’t make his current ratings here any less shocking.

[OSR stands with Israel]

Kind of shocking he's under water now in a forum that is predominantly liberal or to the left of center.

A lot of this is because Obama’s FP legacy looking back was clearly disastrous and people only didn’t think so at the time because his predecessor was George W Bush . His domestic policy legacy is also not that great in hindsight given the bipartisan deals Biden has made in an even more polarized time and his academic style of liberalism has not worked out anywhere near as good as people thought at the time .

[darklordoftech]

Tilt FF. His presidency will face far more scrutiny in the long run than it currently does.

This is where I am now, too.

The way Obama is viewed now is similar to how Bill Clinton was viewed a decade ago, and we all know Clinton's stock fell since then, abet for different reasons than I think Obama's will.

Michelle Obama isn’t interested in running for anything and anti-establishment rhetoric has been deplatformed, so I’m not so sure that Obama’s stock will fall.

[Blow by blow, the passion dies]

As a Brazilian with Duginist sympathies, HP for his foreign policy.