But for the next 100 years, EVERYONE will say he was the best President for a Century...... JMHO.

the future is written by younger generations

His List of accomplishments judged against his opponent's resistance and the obstacles he faced are prolific

many despise him.

He may look a little feckless at first, but hindsight always shows that he made the right decisions.

In the interest of giving thanks.

Not to be an asshole, but it irks me a bit when people misspell his name.

EOM

1. End the Surveillance State
2. Take our the tax rates back the pre-Reagan levels
3. End all drone strikes.
4. Pull out of NAFTA, CAFTA, Permanent-Normal-Trade-Relations with China and denounce the upcoming SHAFTA (TPP)
5. Show he's actually aligned with the interests of the the working class vs. the Billionaire class.
6. Open an Iraq War Inquiry - an take it to the conclusion wherever it leads - don't be afraid of prosecutions (should it lead there)
7. Really act on Climate Change - not "I stopped the Keystone XL Pipeline" while opening the Arctic and Eastern Seaboard to drilling and shipping huge amounts of coal to other countries. Not promoting fracking to the world.

Then I'd start to give thanks.
The sad truth is that this Freedom to Marry and Black Lives matter do matter but they DO NOT challenge the corporate elites.

I'd love to see him stand up to them - I don't think that'll ever happen.

So it may be great to some people to say "hey, my President is a Democrat and he sings really well... I'm so happy" but it's not so great when you're employed in 3 jobs at the same time and you live in a tent by the river because your job was shipped to Vietnam... but at least I can now get married to someone of the same-sex!!

I particularly like how you demand the president change the tax code.

by the noise they make

got that right. To say nothing of sneering at the economic progress he oversaw, the return to a resemblance of regulation in financial and environmental sectors. I've always said, much to the consternation of my friends enamored with Bill Clinton, that it took 3/4 of his first term for Pres Obama to overturn THOSE bad policies. Then he had to contend with the bad bush policies.

He did not single handedly over turn discrimination against LGBT citizens. In fact, like Clinton, he had to 'evolve' on the issue. He had a homophobic preacher at his inauguration, and it was not until 2011 that he began to fight DOMA.

I credit and thank those that led from the beginning. I credit the Human Rights Campaign. I credit senators like Sanders and reps like Barbara Boxer. I credit every LGBT person and their heterosexual allies who fought from the beginning to allow for the same social and economic rights as all heterosexual couples.

The ACA is a mediocre health insurance mandate. It helps some, and harms others. It is moderately better than what we have but is far less than what could be.

Should I thank him for NAFTA on steroids, the TPP, that he pushed through with majority GOP support and minority Dem support?

He campaigned on repealing DOMA...

And the repeal of DADT was on the books since as early as 2005...

DOMA certainly took a backseat to the ACA, but we also had that whole Great Depression thing, so it's not like Obama didn't have his hands full.

The important part is that it got done. I don't understand why getting stuff done is always dismissed and distracted. They're completely separate issues.

I am glad he finally started working on getting things done.

I just know that those who deserves the most praise are not politicians that must evolve. Those who deserve the praise are leaders who spoke out when it was not politically expedient to do so. Those who deserve the most praise are those activists, both LGBT & straight, who marched, fought, and made this happen one little victory at a time.

Today I celebrate my sister who has waited and fought for 15 years to be able to marry the love of her life. Together they and we made it happen irrespective of the politicians come lately.

Electing Democrats, getting them elected, and keeping them in office, obviously has a significant impact. Had Obama had super-majorities, DOMA could've been repealed week 1.

the TPP could have been passed a lot sooner?

Obama can muster the votes when he really wants to. That is obvious now, so the revisionism about not having votes for repeal of DOMA, the public option, etc. just don't fly with me anymore especially when he had a Democratic majority no matter how slim.

...since it is the Republicans who are on board with it and if we had supermajority of Democrats, it's very possible that TPP would be harder to pass.

a. him being out of office for long enough. Former presidents tend to get more popular as they're away, even Bush ll.
b. more people experiencing direct positive results. There are people who mistakenly think he has been sitting on his ass all this time and not pushing for critical pieces of legislation, despite evidence to the contrary.
c. people actually looking up what his administration has accomplished/fought for throughout the 6 years, along with getting better informed about civics.
d. RWers realizing that they've been had by FOX, Rush Limbaugh, Alex Jones, etc. all these years.

Last edited Sat Jun 27, 2015, 01:33 AM - Edit history (1)

Haters at DU and on the RW cannot let any of it rest even for a day, but I think those polls about his approval ratings are due to soar even higher. The reason for that is not that they are low info voters, as some here claimed even this week, but that the average person is not a political junkie and therefore not obsessed.

To answer your question: he is already appreciated.

The first week he was officially a lame duck president he did something that made me sit up and say: He's been set free. He is going to redefine the very nature of this time in office. He's doing just that.

that he is. I saw him in 2008 with black hair and a nice smile. Now he looks so old, grey hair. He has put himself out there to pacify America and sometimes he has to deal with racism. What a wonderful legacy he will leave behind, I really like your President.

He will be remembered as a great president during a pivotal time. On top of all his policy accomplishments, coming out of the recession, ending DOMA and presiding over marriage quality, he's had no scandals.

and we finally have a winner...

I don't think that will ever happen.