Ten things Obama will be remembered for

Washington DC, Tuesday

As Barack Obama prepares to leave office on Friday, here are 10 things his presidency may be remembered for:

Making history

If historians were to write only one thing about Barack Hussein Obama, they would likely note that — 143 years after slavery was abolished — a young Illinois senator became the first black president of the United States. Obama, just 47 at his 2009 inauguration, harnessed magisterial oratory to rally a diverse electoral coalition behind a message of “hope and change.”

Too big to fail

Obama’s first term in office was dominated by economic freefall. A real estate crisis spawned a financial meltdown that torpedoed Wall Street banks and lenders, and was metastasizing into an economic crisis of global proportions. As he leaves office, the political and social aftershocks of that financial cataclysm are still being felt, but the economy has added jobs for 75 straight months.

‘Justice has been done’

“Tonight, I can report to the American people and to the world that the United States has conducted an operation that killed Osama bin Laden.” With those words on May 2, 2011, Obama exorcised the anger and frustration of millions of Americans — that the most powerful country on earth could not hold the man accountable for the 9/11 attacks.

Legislative toil

From the moment Obama was elected, Republicans in Congress vowed to oppose him tooth and nail. Efforts to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay and enact gun controls — even after the 2012 massacre of young students in Newtown, the emotional nadir of his presidency — would fall victim to partisan rancor.

A deal with a half-life

For more than two decades, the United States had rolled out sanctions and covert actions to prevent arch-foe Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. Obama tried a different tack, engaging in secret talks with the Islamic Republic. That gambit ultimately yielded a deal that saw Iran halt its sprint toward a nuclear weapon. The pact would strain US relations with Iran’s enemies Israel and Saudi Arabia.

No turnabout on Syria

No international crisis tested Obama’s foreign policy or his high bar for US military intervention like Syria. Even when Bashar al-Assad defied Obama’s red line on chemical weapons use and killed countless thousands of civilians — along with Russian and Iranian forces — Obama rejected calls to step in. Syria will likely be in crisis for years to come.

Change the climate

After the climate skepticism of Bush, Obama’s eight years in office resulted in a tidal wave of environmental legislation, protecting marine ecosystems, curbing carbon emissions and boosting renewable energy. In a bid to ingrain environmentalism into America’s body politic, Obama hiked Alaskan glaciers, snorkeled at Midway Island and rushed through ratification of the Paris climate accord.

A very big deal

Democrats had tried and failed for decades to provide Americans with universal health care. Obama wasn’t quite able to do that but he extended insurance covera ge to tens of millions of citizens who previously had none through the “Obamacare” plan.

Racial tensions persist

Many hoped that America’s first black president would help the nation overcome racial inequality. But the man elected with the overwhelming support of the nation’s minority voters of all colours disappointed many. Racial tensions — underscored by police shootings of unarmed black men and conspiracy theories about Obama’s birthplace — persisted, and the president remained cautious about weighing in on the issue.

Meet the neighbours

Obama’s trip to Cuba may be remembered in the same way as Richard Nixon’s visit to China, but in truth it was the capstone of a much broader effort to improve US relations with Latin America. He shook Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez’s hand, met Nicaraguan firebrand Daniel Ortega and visited Havana. — AFP

The post Ten things Obama will be remembered for appeared first on Mediamax Network Limited.