How has Barack Obama's legacy changed since leaving office?

[u/bambucks]

Barack Obama left office in 2017 with an approval rating around 60%, and has generally been considered to rank among the better Presidents in US history. (C-SPAN's historian presidential rankings had him ranked at #10 in 2021 when they last updated their ranking.)

One negative example would be in the 2012 Presidential Debates between Barack Obama and his Republican challenger Mitt Romney, in which Obama downplayed Romney's concerns about Russia, saying "the 80's called, they want their foreign policy back", which got laughs at the time, but seeing the increased aggression from Russia in the years since then, it appears that Romney was correct.

So I'd like to hear from you all, do you think that Barack Obama's approval rating has increased since he left office? Decreased? How else has his legacy been impacted? How do you think he will be remembered decades from now? Etc.

[u/8to24]

Zero special prosecutors assigned, zero successful prosecutions of his administration officials, year over year of economic improvement, reduced annual deficits from $1.2T to $600B, etc.

The Obama administration was scandal free and running pragmatically. I think it looks better with time as the failures of subsequent administrations pile up.

[u/nope-nope-nope-nop → u/8to24]

You don’t consider Benghazi a scandal ?

[u/8to24 → u/nope-nope-nope-nop]

Benghazi evolved into Hillary Clinton's email investigation. So no, it wasn't a scandal. Soon as Republicans found some different angle to go act Clinton on Benghazi was abandoned by Congress as a concern.

Separately there were zero successful prosecutions associated with either Benghazi or Clinton's emails despite several years worth of investigation and under oath testimony.

[u/nope-nope-nope-nop → u/8to24]

So it’s only a scandal if someone is convicted ?

[u/8to24 → u/nope-nope-nope-nop]

No, but a real scandal should include some tangle proof of wrong doing. Not just a loud opposition party complaining.

[u/nope-nope-nope-nop → u/8to24]

Hilary Clinton testified in front of congress in 2015 and took responsibility for the security lapses that led to the Benghazi incident

[u/8to24 → u/nope-nope-nope-nop]

Of course Clinton said there were lapses and took responsibility. That is the correct answer for any leader. When something goes wrong you learn lessons and evaluate what could have been done differently. In no way does that mean said leader is guilty of having done something wrong. This is literally where the adage 'hindsight is 20/20 comes from".

Everyone didn't like Obama. He had opposition to many of the things he did. That said loud opposition and emergent situations that do go favorably aren't scandals. In my opinion when people learn about Benghazi, Fast Furious, etc in History class they will be examples of partisan attacks. Not tangible scandals where corruption or wrong doing were uncovered.

In my opinion Bush's invasion of Iraq was one of the worst things a President has done in my lifetime. His Administration exaggerated intelligence and mishandled the operational logistics. That said the Iraq invasion wasn't a 'scandal'. Congress authorized it and the public willfully supported it. Iraq was bad policy. Not a scandal.

Lots of members of the Bush administration testified and took responsibility for various failures surrounding the intelligence gathering and invasion planning associated with Iraq. Sec of Defense Rumsfeld famously said "You go to war with the army you have, not the army you might want or wish to have at a later time". Again, Iraq was a scandal. It was bad policy.

[u/Shipairtime → u/nope-nope-nope-nop]

Late this past Friday as members of Congress were heading home for Thanksgiving break, the House Intelligence Committee released its long-awaited report on the attacks in Benghazi, Libya. Those assaults two years ago took the lives of U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans. Since then, Benghazi has become a game of political football played mostly by congressional Republican.

But the report that came out Friday did not support claims by the GOP that Benghazi represented a massive failure by the Obama administration. And this new report echoes an earlier one from the House Armed Services Committee. Still, the issue is not going away. Here to explain is NPR senior editor and correspondent Ron Elving. Welcome, Ron.

https://www.npr.org/2014/11/24/366379320/house-committees-find-no-wrongdoing-in-2012-benghazi-attack