Missing President Barack Obama

Barack Hussein Obama gave his farewell address this week. Shortly, he leaves office as the 44^th President of the United States. We lament his departure and not just because of the dire prospects his successor offers. We’ve stated clearly how much of a mistake we think the country made in electing Donald Trump. We’ll have more to say about that in due course. For now, we celebrate and commemorate the Obama Presidency.

As the first African-American President, no matter how he did, Obama occupies a unique place in American history. That he accomplished as much as he did makes the man all the more important. Republicans, right after the 2016 election, started talking about shrinking his legacy. They will do away with many of his executive actions and some legislative accomplishments, given their Congressional majorities. They won’t diminish Obama as a president who changed the nation, impacted people’s lives, and altered American culture.

CHANGING POLITICS   

Obama campaigned as the candidate of hope and change. Even he’d admit he didn’t live up to all that hype – no one could. But, Obama changed an accepted tenant of American politics, just in getting elected. He showed that a person of color could win the Presidency. The idea of a black (or brown) President no longer represents a fantasy of novelists and screenwriters. That he won by capturing the nomination of his party and taking the general election in an electoral college landslide made his triumph even more remarkable. We’d guess most people who dreamed a black person could become President assumed it would happen through vice presidential succession – a black elevated by tragedy. Obama did it the old fashioned way. He earned it. No back bench Republican Congressman can erode that part of Obama’s legacy just by voting to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

A DIFFERENCE IN PEOPLE’S LIVES  

Americans may have forgotten how stuck in a ditch the U.S. economy was in 2009 when Obama took office – unemployment at 7.9 % and rising (vs. 4.7 % now), the stock market at 7,949, the lowest inauguration day number ever, as opposed to flirting with 20,000 now, home foreclosures skyrocketing, and, most important, confidence at all economic levels at lows unseen since the 1930s. That many give Obama minimal credit for changing things says more about them than him. He admits he never took a victory lap touting his success and that perhaps he should have. By rescuing the auto industry, pushing through Congress a stimulus package that paved the road back, and reassuring the financial markets, Obama got the nation headed in the right direction. That the recovery hasn’t been perfect – we know about the lack of wage growth – doesn’t detract from the significance of his economic accomplishments.

The Affordable Care Act, Obama’s signature legislative program, of course, remains controversial. Polls show the electorate almost evenly divided about it. Those polls also show, however, that even opponents want it replaced with something that provides widespread coverage. Very few want to return to the Wild, Wild West that characterized health coverage before the Affordable Care Act passed. That fact alone demonstrates that Obama, by finally passing a national health insurance law, changed the dynamic around the issue. Republicans, in their zeal to repeal the Affordable Care Act, must realize that they take health coverage away from Americans at their peril. Why? Barack Obama.

GRACE   

Even before January 20, 2009, the new President acquired the moniker “No Drama Obama.”  He wasn’t prone to snap judgments, he didn’t indulge conspiracy theories, and he didn’t stir up or manufacture crises. He didn’t seem scandal prone. None of that changed over Obama’s eight years in office. In fact, he presided over a deliberate White House that, with a few exceptions, avoided the controversies, blow ups, and intrigue that had become common place in American Presidential politics. Above all, no scandals marred his Presidency. Even the trumped up IRS affair proved much ado about nothing. Vultures never circled the Obama White House because he and his aides didn’t leave battered carcasses lying around. Obama, his wife, and daughters conducted themselves with grace, dignity, and decorum. While many of his adversaries didn’t meet that standard, the President and the First Lady kept their cool in the face of both real disrespect and mere tackiness.

Obama wasn’t perfect. From time to time, even we objected to things he did or didn’t do. He occasionally misread the national mood, as when he used the words “cop” and “stupid” in the same sentence when discussing the Henry Louis Gates arrest early in his tenure. He whiffed on Syria. He likely deserves some blame for the decline in his party’s fortunes at the state and local level. In fact, his most significant failure might have been his inability to find meaningful involvement in the political and leadership process for the millions of young Americans who propelled him into office in the first place. Had he done so, the Trump insurgency might never have taken hold. We’re not sure any Democrat could have done better legislatively once Republicans took over Congress, but Obama sometimes seemed aloof from the legislative process. Yes, Obama has a few things to regret but, as Frank Sinatra might say, “too few to mention.”

The first sentence of Obama’s obituary will, no doubt, reference his status as the nation’s first African-American president. What happens between now and then will determine what else goes into it. Is there another President of color in his life time?  Does another Democratic President revive signature Obama policies the Trump administration dismantles? Do subsequent economic events demonstrate just how well he handled that part of the job?  Will anyone else govern with his dignity and intelligence? Will another family so graciously inhabit the White House? No one can answer these questions now, but they will bear on how history ultimately treats Obama and his times. What we can say now, is, “Well done and we’ll miss you.”