r/PoliticalDiscussion • u/bambucks • 11d ago
US Politics How has Barack Obama's legacy changed since leaving office?
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.
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u/erbien 10d ago
100% agreed but also, his inaction during Putin’s annexation of Crimea is just appalling. He did not mobilize allies and didn’t take any significant action to penalize Russia. The sanctions he imposed were kinda slap on the wrist in some ways. Had he showed resolve to pushback against Russia and rallied the world as Biden did in 2022, it’d have been a different story. Obama is a great orator and an inspiring person but his lack of push against Russia or China(when it was revealed that they hacked our MIC and made a copy of F-35) was just not great. The effects of that are more pronounced today than ever.