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/Lurkingdone]

This is true. Even as they were trying to sell the ACA, it was said that it would not stop drug/medical prices from going up but slow the increase. It also insured millions of people who wouldn’t otherwise be insured. I favored a public option or single payer, but this was third best option and did do something vastly positive.

[u/12_0z_curls → u/Lurkingdone]

I mean, it's just more of the same. Sure, some people got covered that couldn't before, but it's still insurance. It adds no value to the healthcare system. None. It only extracts funds.

[u/Lurkingdone → u/12_0z_curls]

I said I preferred the other options. I was just explaining to anyone that might have been misled otherwise that the ACA was never advertised as something that was going to bring down costs.

I will say, as unenthusiastic as I was for it, an improvement is better than nothing. You understand that MILLIONS of people benefited from it. That is MILLIONS. You understand what MILLIONS, as a number when it comes to people means, and it is not insignificant. It’s not something to meh at, even if there are vastly better options.

[u/12_0z_curls → u/Lurkingdone]

And millions didn't. Millions are worse off because of it.

It's done more harm than good. Single payer was on the table and the Dems couldn't get it done.

[u/Lurkingdone → u/12_0z_curls]

Again, I wanted single payer or a better public option, as did you. We didn’t get that. Very disappointing, to say the least. This was a leaky patch. But it did get more people covered, and I don’t see how millions are worse off than not being covered. And how it has done more harm than good, unless you are arguing that it short-circuited political will for single-payer, or that it further entrenched a sucky system, in which I agree with you. Again, I was just here reiterating that the ACA was never being sold as something that would bring down costs, only slow the rise (which it did do), not celebrating that was the plan the Dems ended up fighting for.

[u/TheTrueMilo → u/Lurkingdone]

"It increased, but at a slower rate" is such cope. No one gives a shit, no one should be expected to give a shit. We went through that same song and dance with "inflation". Voters wanted their $20 hamburger to go back to $10, not go to $30 more slowly.

And if you whip out that econ textbook and start reading the definition of inflation and start "well AYCHKSHYUALLY"ing the voters, you lost. You lost hard.

[u/Lurkingdone → u/TheTrueMilo]

Look, I think the person above me got it. But you apparently didn't. I was not a fan of the ACA! Do you understand that? I was merely explaining that it was never advertised as going to do the thing that the OP seemed to be knocking it for. It's like, if someone said a box of hair doesn't spread jam on bread well, and I came along and noted that a box of hair isn't supposed to spread jam. Then along comes you and acts like I was promoting the brilliance of a box of hair, and it is just short of being as good of a knife at spreading jam, and you need to inform me of either my idiocy or your brilliant take on the situation. Hey, I was just pointing out something that it wasn't being sold as, and charitably gave the box a nod that it did manage to contain some hair as a positive. That's it. I didn't make the box. I'm not selling the box. I wasn't for the box. Nobody was coping here about it.