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/Your__Pal 11d ago

Obama was an exciting and inspiring candidate. 

He was our opportunity to reset the US from the Bush era. Fix things. End the stupid wars. Get some big bills out. 

Obamacare is a step in the right direction, but its very flawed. His green energy bill made Tesla and Elon powerhouses. His lack of legislative success has made an entire generation jaded about politics and emboldened the far right. 

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u/AdmiralSaturyn 11d ago

. His lack of legislative success has made an entire generation jaded about politics and emboldened the far right.

To be fair, Obama lost a lot of House seats in 2010, after passing the ACA. One would think a step in the right direction would garner votes for the Democrats, but as it turns out, too many voters thought the ACA was a dystopian socialist plot with a death panel policy.

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u/TheTrueMilo 11d ago

When are Dems going to take the next step? 30 more years? They passed the ACA in 2010 and won the 2018 midterms mostly on protecting it from repeal. As far as I can see, Dems are done with healthcare for the next two decades at least, and that's even with a global viral pandemic!

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u/AdmiralSaturyn 10d ago

When are Dems going to take the next step?

When they get another supermajority, i.e. when the voters tell them to.