(note- this was written in January)
At the end of every presidency people look back at the legacy of the president and decide how he was (Leonard Cohen said that titles such as poet should be attributed only after one’s life).
But how are such things judged?
Longevity? Thomas Jefferson was thirty-three when he wrote the constituion and the aveage age was of those who signed was fourty-four- merely children.
The second president, John Adams used to write letters to his wife (who is probably more famous than he is outside of the United States) before and after he became president and he would address his wife in the letters with a derivation of ‘my best friend’. Highly sceptical of democracy Adams helped it to over come its birth pains.
Nixon much vilified and remembered negatively desegregated the schools, the darling JFK, a believer in communism escalated America’s interest in Vietnam and severed ties with Cuba
But of course what I really want to talk about is the ending of the 44th presidency, Barack Obama. Obama came in upon a tidal wave of popularity however, the expectations put upon him by people were unrealistic and when he could not live up to them they attacked him. Hollywood and the liberal arts vilified him for only walking on water but not skipping, Democrats, fearful of Republicans, refused to back many of his initiatives and the Republicans, led by Mitch McConnell (‘our main priority is to prevent Obama being re-elected’) and aided by the Koch Brothers and some vain-glorious businessman called Trump who kept demanding to see Obama’s birth certificate), failed to prevent his re-election so then set about blocking him and then calling him a lame-duck.
In spite of Congress and the rest, Obama recovered America’s fortunes after the 2008 crash, provided affordable health-care to all people, raised the minimum wage, scaled back America’s involvement in wars, caught the most wanted criminal (Bin-Laden), stood up to Israel, who were taking American support for granted, imposed sanctions upon Russia, essentially crippling large aspects of Putin’s power and led the way on climate change and emissions control managing to get even China to agree to the sanctions (and that is just things off the top of my head).
However, Hollywood still decried him, Republicans forced him to shut down the government (back a person into a corner and you’ll see what he is made of) and even then Obama managed to win.
There is the old saying- you don’t know what you have until it is gone and this has been echoing in my head every time I hear the anti-Obama sentiment. Yes there are things he could have done better, such as in Syria where if Obama says stop they will stop such is his awe and fear factor but a president can only deal with the time he has and thanks to Clinton’s repeal of Glass–Steagall and the growth of the risk-taking-bond-market (for more information read Michael Lewis) Obama inherited a country that was on the verge of another great depression, but more importantly the way he acted with dignity and poise is an inspiration to young people everywhere.
Obama, we miss you
thegreaterfool2016 