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

[Saint Milei]

Worst president ever

[TheDeadFlagBlues]

Speaking of prescience, here's another post that I came across while combing through some of the old health care reform threads. It comes across as much more solemn today than it did over six years ago.

History will probably judge him badly for not being able to prevent the final victory of fascism, as well-meaning but ultimately ineffectual leader, though he really did about as well as he could given the circumstances.

Very strange coming from Lief!

[PresidentSamTilden]

Speaking of prescience, here's another post that I came across while combing through some of the old health care reform threads. It comes across as much more solemn today than it did over six years ago.

History will probably judge him badly for not being able to prevent the final victory of fascism, as well-meaning but ultimately ineffectual leader, though he really did about as well as he could given the circumstances.

Respect is due...wow.

[angus]

Speaking of prescience, here's another post that I came across while combing through some of the old health care reform threads. It comes across as much more solemn today than it did over six years ago.

History will probably judge him badly for not being able to prevent the final victory of fascism, as well-meaning but ultimately ineffectual leader, though he really did about as well as he could given the circumstances.

haha.  solemn?

More like sensationalistic, which is rather the opposite of solemn.  Also the channeling of opebo was a charming touch, though it lacks mention of The Bad Place.  

We have no idea how history will judge Obama.  He was a major disappointment to those of us who voted for him, but judging a president's legacy during the first few years after he leaves office, or while he is still in office, is a tricky business.  If you read the OP carefully, it does not ask you to do that.  It only asks your personal opinion of the president relative to your personal expectations upon his entering office.

[angus]

relatively mainstream Democratic commentators

"relatively mainstream Democratic commentators" do not spend 18 months helping Donald Trump become president of the united states.  

The "Democratic commentator" in question made a very sensationalistic comment, but it was not one uncharacteristic of him, or of his on line persona, six years ago and today.

And yes, I have read anything else in this thread, in fact I have read all that has been posted in this thread, and your post was the most unrelated to the original topic among them, and the only one deserving to be called out as unrelated to the OP.

[angus]

That description was not in reference to Lief, and I'm still struggling to understand your point.

It was only that solemnity is not the description that comes to my mind when I read the post you quoted, the one totally unrelated to this thread.

[PresidentSamTilden]

I think it's solemn...in 2010, calling republicans fascist was a "haha" thing. Now it's an "oh crap" thing, with Trump very much playing the part of Authoritarian. Most liberals view Trump's victory as a punch in the face and the curtain raiser on a suddenly frightening future...solemn fits that feeling pretty well.

Of course, if you support Trump, you won't get it - but it does make sense to the people who feel that way.

[angus]

in 2010, calling republicans fascist was a "haha" thing.

Just as it was in 2000 and again in 1980, as I well remember.  I suspect it was like that even before then, but I wouldn't know personally.  Nothing was solemn about it then and nothing is solemn about it now.  Look up the word sometime, you'll find that calling Republicans fascist is, in fact, the opposite of solemnity.  It is sensationalism, just as calling Obama a socialist (or, better yet, a Muslim) is sensationalist.  Those who do it think it's cute, I suppose--and apparently some of those who hear or read it think it's cute as well, as you and Averroës and the Fox News Channel remind us--but solemn is what it is not. 

[Young Conservative]

I expected little but his performance was still much worse than I could've ever expected. His weak 'leadership' foreign policy and general portrayal of weakness was incredibly detrimental and his betrayal of Israel was appalling. His supreme court justices are incredibly liberal. Throughout his eight years My family lost or health insurance only to get a new one that is worse than before with 3 times that of what we paid before. He continuely lied and overreached his authority. He did nothing to help my family at all. He doesn't care about me or my family. Granted my parents have seen their business flourish in the past few years, but the only thing Obamacare did was hinder them and hurt their employees. I'm incredibly excited for a president who I believe  cares about me and my family to be in office and who has already laid out policies to help the middle class. his entire tenure has been marred by policy failure and foreign policy bill under. The saving grace: he built his legacy on sand using executive orders and failed to help the Democratic  party avoid utter decimation. Frankly, I would be upset with him even if I was a Democrat.

[Devout Centrist]

Better than expected. He didn't do a far left turn and was surprisingly liberal on social issues.

That being said, I'm still disappointed about his approach concerning the NSA.

[Waterfall]

Who could have had any confident expectations to begin with? Obama had never done hardly anything when he became president. I don't understand how anyone can answer the question meaningfully.

[JustinTimeCuber]

Kyle Kulinski gave him like a 68% I think
Tend to agree with that

[Virginiá]

I'm still disappointed about his approach concerning the NSA.

Agreed. I had hoped he would make meaningful changes, but nope. This is one area where I find little difference between the two parties. Both of have defenders of privacy rights, and Democrats may in some cases pay more lip service to reducing the power of this surveillance behemoth, but in the end nothing ever gets done.

Obama could have made a lot of big changes in this regard and yet he didn't, with the end result being him handing arguably the world's most powerful surveillance apparatus to Donald Fking Trump.

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

Let's face it, we have no clue what information a President has when he makes decisions like those involving the NSA (a horrible hideous agency).

Perhaps Obama felt the good outweighed the bad.  We have know way to know, but yes, he had a chance and he didn't take it.  Why?  It seems like he thought it would be worse than letting the monster roam free.

[Torie]

Let's face it, we have no clue what information a President has when he makes decisions like those involving the NSA (a horrible hideous agency).

Perhaps Obama felt the good outweighed the bad.  We have know way to know, but yes, he had a chance and he didn't take it.  Why?  It seems like he thought it would be worse than letting the monster roam free.

What monster did you have in mind?

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

Let's face it, we have no clue what information a President has when he makes decisions like those involving the NSA (a horrible hideous agency).

Perhaps Obama felt the good outweighed the bad.  We have know way to know, but yes, he had a chance and he didn't take it.  Why?  It seems like he thought it would be worse than letting the monster roam free.

What monster did you have in mind?

The NSA, of course.

[(Still) muted by Kalwejt until March 31]

First term somewhat better than I expected, second term much, much worse. I expected him to be better than W. Bush, and I was badly disappointed by his being worse. What a disgrace this country's in.

[Vosem]

Somewhat better than expected, though amusingly my experience is totally counter to Eharding's. The first term, and probably including the year 2013, was godawful, but then towards the end we actually had a decent presidency for a few years (Obama was actually doing pretty well 2014-2015, in hindsight), but then started to drop the ball at the very end of his term, again, and was particularly awful during his final lame duck period. Better than I expected, since I had very low expectations of him back in 2009, but still not that great on the whole.