What is your opinion of Obama's performance as President?

[DPKdebator]

How would you rate Obama's performance as President? Did he do better or worse than you expected and/or hoped?

[America Needs R'hllor]

Since I was a massive supporter of Romney in 2012 and now really support Obama, much better than expected.

[anthonyjg]

He has his flaws but I think he's been a pretty good president. His first term was worse than I expected, his second was better than I expected.

[Beet]

Somewhat better than I expected.

I thought there was a high chance the economy would be in such bad shape that someone like Sarah Palin could get elected in 2012. I thought there was only a 50% chance (at most) that health care reform would pass.

[Mr. Smith]

Worse.

While the primary was already really toothless, he was supposed to at least get something done exactly as planned.

He just let himself be stonewalled the whole way though...either by Blue Dogs, or by Mitch McConnell and Co.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Somewhat better, but as I feared, he did prove rather naive when it came to foreign policy,  Like many US presidents, he treated foreign leaders as if they had the same sorts of motivations as American politicians. I expect Trump will share that same flaw except he's going to treat foreign leaders as if they were American businessmen.

[Figueira]

It's hard to recall what I thought in 2008-2009, but I'd say around the same.

[TDAS04]

Somewhat better than expected, which is pretty good, considering I thought he'd by a good president.

[Virginiá]

Somewhat better than expected. A fair bit of my disappointment stems from his naive behavior with regards to Republicans in Congress and that he often seems more concerned with his own personal brand and not his own party, which may or may not have contributed noticeably to our loss of power over his tenure.

I expect to be more disappointed by the time he leaves office. If he had any sense, he would ram through a scotus nomination using one of the 2 options that seem to be viable. Enough with the niceties. Him not doing that is not earning him any points, except maybe to a smaller group of people who actually pays attention to that stuff. Who is really going to complain? Republicans stole the seat from him using pathetic excuses, which inevitably boiled down to "its constitutional for us to do this," so if he can find a constitutional way to fill it at the last minute, then Republicans have no room to say anything.

In the future, the average American isn't going to be like, "oh, at least Obama didn't ram through a last minute recess appointment! How honorable!" No, the only result is all the negative fallout from the decisions of a renewed conservative SC majority, perhaps in regards to voting rights and campaign finance. When they drastically weaken Section 2 of the VRA and effectively repeal what's left of our meager campaign finance regulations, that will be the legacy of his decision. Nothing but a deluge of voter suppression and special interest money, all so he could feel better about his post-presidency public image.

[Crumpets]

Somewhat better than expected. When he was elected in 2008, I expected he'd be a one-termer with basically no major policy accomplishments apart from stopping the stock market crash and fixing some of the more egregious Bush-era policies, mostly due to his age and apparent naïveté.

[Antonio the Sixth]

It's really not fair to hold him to the expectations of a wide-eyed 15-year old French kid who knew almost nothing about US politics. Based on the expectations that I'd have today, he definitely exceeded them.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Exactly as I expected. I mean I even took the following screencap of the BBC News site because I was pretty sure it would reek of irony in the future...



I can't say that I take any pleasure out of this though.

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

I didn't expect much and I wasn't disappointed.

[Sumner 1868]

Depends. I was skeptical of him through the election cycle, but caught a bad case of Obamamania around the time of the first inaugural.

[dead0man]

slightly worse....I didn't expect much and he didn't deliver much!

[Person Man]

Barack Obama was the Woodrow Wilson of our time

What does that mean. He did come from a little of the same background..

[Cashew]

Barack Obama was the Woodrow Wilson of our time

What does that mean. He did come from a little of the same background..

I wouldn't go that far, although his foreign policy does have the same liberal internationalist bent that Wilson had.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Exactly as I expected. I mean I even took the following screencap of the BBC News site because I was pretty sure it would reek of irony in the future...



I can't say that I take any pleasure out of this though.

If only Hillary had followed thru on Obama's intent to stop using email.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Considering that the four Presidents that preceded him were all very effective at actively making all the problems you describe worse, Obama being ineffective in combating them doesn't strike me as too terrible in context.

[dead0man]

If only Hillary had followed thru on Obama's intent to stop using email.

I was about to make the same(ish) joke yesterday but didn't want to keep hammering that nail.  I'm glad somebody noticed and got around to it.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Considering that the four Presidents that preceded him were all very effective at actively making all the problems you describe worse, Obama being ineffective in combating them doesn't strike me as too terrible in context.

The only necessary context is President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration in less than three weeks.

I'll grant you that Obama bears some responsibility for this, but surely you're not implying he's the main or one of the main culprits? Even among the Presidents I mentioned, Reagan and Clinton did far more to lead to this.

[President Johnson]

Well, he got a lot done and it was clear for everybody with a slight political knowledge, that he could not meet the expectations from 2008. But considering all the obstruction and opposition he had to face, he has several accomplishments (just to name a few: Obamacare, Economy & Jobs, Wall Street Reform, Iran Deal, Climate change and Paris agreements, Cuba). Also some failures, like the Middle East.

Outstanding, no matter whether you agree with him politically or not, is his personal integrity and a scandal-free presidency. He was definitely the best president of the last few decades.

[angus]

Obama was a disappointment, to be sure.  I voted for him in 2008 but not in 2012.  Voted "somewhat worse" than I expected rather than "much worse" because of his second term, during which he did not disappoint owing to the fact that we had by then altered our expectations owing to the disappointing first term.  "Somewhat worse" therefore was sort of an average between the major disappointment of the first term and about what I expected for the second.

[Mike88]

I think he was a good President. He acomplished a lot of good things for America and changed the view the world had of the USA prior to 2008, which was very bleak. But at the same time, he was very naive towards the Republicans and underestimated their acts in the oposition. This haunted and mined his presidency many times during the last 8 years, so, i dare to say, but looking back to 2008, Obama was a good candidate with a galvanizing message but... maybe Hillary would had been a better choice to deal with the Republicans at that time, maybe... But overall, Obama, for my part, will be missed.

[PresidentSamTilden]

Picked "somewhat worse than expected". I drank the Kool aid pretty hard in 2008, lol. That said, I was generally pleased with him as a President, and will in all likelihood miss the Obama era sorely.