Now that his presidency is coming to a close... What do you think of Obama?

[Burzhuin]

Usually in order to grade somebody achievements you compare him/her with somebody preceding him. To compare Obama with Bush junior he looks better. But we have to wait another four years to compare him with his successors.

[lutraphile]

Sort of progressive for a US President, still pretty awful

[Laika]

I think bourgeois historians of the future will probably be kinder to Obama than the public are now, as he steered the US through a deep crisis after the Bush years. He was a conservative pragmatist who continued many of the (bad) policies of the previous administration. That in itself is not a reciepe for greatness but is eqivilent to FDR's approach in the Great Depression (I think). He was definetely not the "hope and change" candidate people were promised, nor should his presidency simply be reduced to his race. If anything, both of those serve as commentaries on the anti-intellectual power of media to manipulate the public both for and against him as the personification of the state. He is a politician who managed the decline of the US as an economic and global power and ultimately is a prisoner of those underlying political realities and deeper forces at work-whoever is behind the persona.

This is however, grossly inadequate compared to what people need and simply postpones many of the underlying problems to a different time. His attempts to deal with climate change and income inequality were luke warm at best. Underlying social antagonism over race and class have intensified due to the economic crisis and the decline in the middle class, and his legacy is both that America is still standing but is a more polarised and divided country than he took office. he wasn't able to mend those divisions and that it honestly not surprising. The US is however now particuarly vulnerable to authoritarianism as it has become the new normal as counter-terrorism measures, both at home and abroad, lead to human rights violations, making Trumps candidacy all the more dangerous as there is an environment conducive to ever more vicious forms of imperialism, if not open fascism. These unquestionably seeds for conflicts left to future generations, even if Trump loses in 2016. There will still be a "constiency" for the "make america great again" authoritarianism and it will probably last through another two-term preisedency if not more. Assuming Clinton gets elected and continues this, he will have been a very sound investment for the ruling class, but not for the American people. I would guess a certian degree of nostalga may well paint these as "good years" for the US with the tacit admission that worse is yet to come, even as they have been very hard for many people.

[A Revolutionary Tool]

Obama was a huge disappointment and I had little faith that we'd get much change in the first place. He was a neo-liberal, he bailed out the rich while people were getting kicked out of their homes, he was the president while the feds cracked down on the Occupy movement, he hasn't stopped the militarization of the police, and we could go on and on. Spying on people has only gotten worse than what we knew GWB Jr. was doing, the coup in Honduras was supported while our embassy in Venezuela was trying to overthrow the government. His health care law was so watered down it was the Republican proposal from the 90's. He couldn't even raise taxes on the rich when people were fucking pissed about the Bush tax cuts, he practically made them permanent when they expired! He didn't close Guantanamo like he said he'd do on day 1. He tried to stay in Iraq after the timeline Bush laid out and armed a bunch of rebels that ended up being our enemies and now we're in the middle of this mess in Iraq and Syria with Russia and Iran also making geo-political moves. We made some of the biggest arms deals to countries like Saudi Arabia who made use of the planes we made to bomb Yemen.

What can we be happy about? Gay marriage became legal because of Obama's Supreme Court nominations and he came out in support of it. A few diplomatic things like the Nuclear Non-Proliferation deal and the Iran nuclear deal. Not much has changed while inequality has become even more rampant.

[Synergy]

He is the continuation of the status quo, if not worse. He will more than likely get the Reagan-God treatment from the democratic party in a decade or so.

[Cliff Paul]

I think he's the "coolest" president we've had to date.

Apparently you've never seen those videos of Bill rocking the saxophone

[Cyborg Communist Wizard]

He's an Irish Muslim Atheist commie from Indonesia err... Kenya, his Pastor was Jeremiah Wright who was a God-hating anti-American Bolshevik... His secretive NWO code name is Barry Soetoro.

Here's what I really think:

I agree with Cornel West, Michael Moore and the others on this forum. He's an imperialist, war capitalist in black face. He failed to reverse neoliberalism, he failed to close Guantanamo, failed to get single payer, failed to commit to any serious climate reforms, failed at immigration reform and on the reverse has been the most reactionary toward immigrants in recent US history, he's failed to seal the diplomatic deals between the US and Iran, he's failed to reverse the economic trends of capitalism in the US such that right-wing "populists" (it's a oxymoron, I know) like Trump are becoming viable.

That was an element on my leftward shift as well. Trumpists on comment boards love to call Obamunism as authentically 'communist' all of the time. I'm always quick to point out how that's not the case. They be like, "Those miserable Mexican commies wanna take our stuff!" And I be like, "I don't want your smelly socks..."

Voila.

What do you mean be black face . I'm really confused.