Will Barack Obama be remembered as the Democrats' Nixon?

[Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers]

He ran on black themes community activist, black lawyer, urban poverty. Just in the case like Clinton we are no longer in recession, but jobs isn't enough. His failure to lead on eradicating poverty is going to haunt his legacy. Student loan debt is the burden on black youths.

[barfbag]

He ran on black themes community activist, black lawyer, urban poverty. Just in the case like Clinton we are no longer in recession, but jobs isn't enough. His failure to lead on eradicating poverty is going to haunt his legacy. Student loan debt is the burden on black youths.

I think he just wanted to be president for the perks and respect. Did you really believe he cared in 2008 just because of his soft fuzzy speeches?

[HansOslo]

Here's the thing about Obama's legacy.  To political scientist and such, he'll probably end up just ahead of the curve, probably around the 20 spot.  To historians, maybe a little higher to around the 15 spot.  BUT ... to the populous as a whole, we're probably looking at Obama being in the top 5 for at least the next 20 to 30 years, probably longer.  He'll probably be ranked as the greatest modern President for a good part of that.  There's no doubt that there will be schools and streets and such named after him, that he'll be a very popular ex-President, and when he dies it'll probably surpass the kind of attention in scope and size that Reagan got.  In a hundred years and more, he'll probably be one of the few Presidents that the general public will be able to name from this area.

But you also have to look at what the President actually accomplished. Truman ended the Second World War in the Pacific, with the Marshall plan they rebuilt Western Europe, they started to contain the Soviet Union and he started the process that would end with the Civil Rights Act of 1964, by desegregating the Army. I don’t think Obama is that bad, but as of yet he hasn’t accomplished anything close to what Truman did.

I think you are correct though, that he will be remembered for a long time. But that will probably be because he was the first African-American President.

[Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers]

There are too many minimum skilled workers that are black while other races get union jobs or government jobs. That's why 25 percent of blacks are in poverty. There were job bills left from the democratic  congress that were not signed. He should of done more to ensure the job bills not just HCR were signed into law.

[Mister Mets]

There aren't that many analogues.

He can only be compared to politicians who take the White House for their party (which excludes Coolidge, Hoover, Truman, LBJ) and who completed two full terms (which excludes Carter and everyone who died in office.)

He might be a Woodrow Wilson, respected by liberal academics but unpopular at the close of his presidency.

Or he could be a Bill Clinton, with less personal scandals, a popular enough President.

He might also be a Ulysses S Grant, lucking into the presidency in a time of party domination. But I don't think we're quite there yet.

[barfbag]

You guys love these comparisons. Why?

[m4567]

Fairly similar to a democratic Nixon. Minus Watergate, of course.

[Randy Bobandy]

A more conservative, much less shifty Nixon.

[Mordecai]

No, he will probably become the new FDR of the Democratic Party and eclipse Bill Clinton.

[Gass3268]

He will be remembered as the worst president ever

Nope, but presvious president is pretty close. Try again next time!

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

Why would anyone ever make this stupid thread?

[SWE]

He will be remembered as the worst president ever

He'll probably go down as below average, but nowhere near the worst. The competition is just too stiff

[Bojack Horseman]

Depends on who you ask. If you ask anyone who's a member of the Tea Party, they'll tell you that not only is he the worst President, but he's also a terrorist, murderer, and worst of all, a certain slur that starts with N. If you ask most Democrats, they'll tell you he's not the best but certainly not the worst. He'd have fared a lot better if the voters hadn't lost their minds in 2010.

[Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers]

He was a transformational prez, but not in the sense of moving legislation, but voters. He got the Mike Moore crowd, to turn out and vote. He legacy will all depend on whether his group of new voters will continue to vote Dem after he isn't prez.

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

Is Obama about to get thrown out of office or something?

Stupid thread.

[Chunk Yogurt for President!]

Eventually, him being the first black president will be the only thing that most remember him for.

[Person Man]

He was a transformational prez, but not in the sense of moving legislation, but voters. He got the Mike Moore crowd, to turn out and vote. He legacy will all depend on whether his group of new voters will continue to vote Dem after he isn't prez.

This. He could be a sign of things to come or a aberration that was based on novelty. Either way, I suspect that the pendulum will sooner or later swing.

[m4567]

You can go back and forth with comparions.

The ACA is a pretty big legislative achievement. It got nicknamed Obamacare. Even the democrats and Obama himself started callling it that.

 If it turns out to be at least fairly popular, that certainly adds to his legacy.

[Meursault]

If you're going to extend this metaphor to its logical conclusion, you have to posit that Obama is not only the Democratic Nixon, but he's the inverse Nixon as well.

Nixon governed largely by ceding domestic policy to the Democrats while pursuing a moderate Republican vision of foreign policy, and most of his major accomplishments were White House overseas initiatives, e.g. opening China, that were accomplished without major legislative assistance.

Obama has governed by basically ceding foreign policy to the GOP (and this includes domestic policies that are related to foreign policy, e.g. the surveillance State) which pursuing a moderate Democratic domestic policy without major legislative assistance, through the use of executive orders.

[Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers]

Nixon won when the country was going through a realignment and so has Obama. Although, he didn't accomplish what he set out to regain full employment in the country, his generational realignment, will contrast in comparison to Nixon's southern strategy, which was very strident in tone.

[Skill and Chance]

If you're going to extend this metaphor to its logical conclusion, you have to posit that Obama is not only the Democratic Nixon, but he's the inverse Nixon as well.

Nixon governed largely by ceding domestic policy to the Democrats while pursuing a moderate Republican vision of foreign policy, and most of his major accomplishments were White House overseas initiatives, e.g. opening China, that were accomplished without major legislative assistance.

Obama has governed by basically ceding foreign policy to the GOP (and this includes domestic policies that are related to foreign policy, e.g. the surveillance State) which pursuing a moderate Democratic domestic policy without major legislative assistance, through the use of executive orders.

I agree with this.  It feels like Obama is governing as FDR/LBJ on domestic policy and a continuation of G.W. Bush on foreign policy.  Now, Obama hasn't been able to do as much as FDR or LBJ due to more opposition in congress, but it is clear that he would have wanted to.  If there were at least 60 Democrats in the senate and a Democratic house from 2009-2017, we would have some version of single payer, a carbon tax and a very liberal immigration reform by the end of Obama's time in office.

[Supersonic]

If you're going to extend this metaphor to its logical conclusion, you have to posit that Obama is not only the Democratic Nixon, but he's the inverse Nixon as well.

Nixon governed largely by ceding domestic policy to the Democrats while pursuing a moderate Republican vision of foreign policy, and most of his major accomplishments were White House overseas initiatives, e.g. opening China, that were accomplished without major legislative assistance.

Obama has governed by basically ceding foreign policy to the GOP (and this includes domestic policies that are related to foreign policy, e.g. the surveillance State) which pursuing a moderate Democratic domestic policy without major legislative assistance, through the use of executive orders.

I agree with this.  It feels like Obama is governing as FDR/LBJ on domestic policy and a continuation of G.W. Bush on foreign policy.  Now, Obama hasn't been able to do as much as FDR or LBJ due to more opposition in congress, but it is clear that he would have wanted to.  If there were at least 60 Democrats in the senate and a Democratic house from 2009-2017, we would have some version of single payer, a carbon tax and a very liberal immigration reform by the end of Obama's time in office.

Calling the True Leftist brigade, in 3.. 2..

[Meursault]

I'm not sure why suggesting Obama has been as comparably liberal on domestic concerns as Franklin Roosevelt should be controversial among 'True Leftists'. It's not as if Roosevelt were some radical Leveller - ref. the longshoreman's strike or control of the WPA to business.