44.BARACK OBAMA (Yes we can,can)
Born: August 4, 1961, Honolulu, Hawaii
Died: He’s still with us on a TV screen near you
Term: January 20, 2009- January 20, 2017
Political Party: Democrat
Vice President: Joseph Biden
First Lady: Michelle Robinson Obama
Before the Presidency: Barack Obama was the first President to be born outside the Continental United States. He would also be the first person of African American heritage to become President as his father was born in Kenya. His mother, who was white, more or less raised Barack after his parents broke up when he was young. She would remarry another foreign student at the University of Hawaii and Barack would spend time in Indonesia where he attended Catholic and Muslim schools. Obama learned about different cultures at a very early age.
When Obama was ten, his mother, concerned about his education, sent him to live with her parents where he could attend regular school. His grandparents raised him from fifth grade until he graduated high school. He was a typical teenager of the late seventies, dabbling in drugs and alcohol, but he also played basketball and was an above average student.
Obama left Hawaii to attend Occidental College in Los Angeles. Two years later, he transferred to Columbia in New York City where he majored in political science. He soon found work as a researcher with a global business firm before accepting an offer from Chicago to become a community organizer for Chicago’s poor and black South Side. Barack Obama found his calling.
Obama excelled as a community organizer, launching the church funded Developing Communities Project and organized residents to demand improvements to a poorly maintained public housing project. Obama, however, would be frustrated with the city bureaucracy and felt he needed a law degree to give him some ammunition to play with.
So, Obama entered Harvard Law School in 1988, this time excelling as a student, and graduating Magna *** Laude. While at Harvard, he was elected President of the Harvard Law Review for the 1990-1991 academic year. This despite being a liberal among a group of conservatives. Obama learned the values of being a good politician as he was able to persuade the conservative voting bloc he’d treat them fairly, and indeed, that’s what he did. He drew some media attention as the first African American to head the law review and he would ultimately write a highly acclaimed book about his struggles as a black man trying to find his identity titled. “Dreams From My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance.”
After Harvard, he returned to Chicago with his wife, Michelle, where he organized a voter registration drive. He worked with a civil rights law firm while lecturing at the University of Chicago.
And in 1996, Obama made his first forays into public office. He ran to replace Alice Palmer as Illinois State Senator (she was running for the US House and had endorsed Obama as her replacement). Palmer, however, changed her mind and tried to run for her own seat. Obama wouldn’t yield and, because Palmer was too late to get her name on the ballot, Obama won the seat.
The State Senate wasn’t a pleasant time for Obama. It was a Republican controlled body for starters, and he was all but shunned by the black caucus over his harsh treatment of Palmer. But he managed to form friendships anyway, working well with both sides of the aisle, and even found a mentor in Democratic Leader Emil Jones, Jr., also a black from Chicago.
In 2002, the Democrats retook the Illinois Senate and Obama was able to thrive as a leading legislator, helping to pass 300 bills aimed at assisting children, the elderly, labor unions, and the poor.
Obama had tried to win a seat in the US House in 2000 with an unsuccessful run against the popular ex-Black Panther Bobby Rush. Fortunately, he was still able to keep his seat in the State Senate and that would be a springboard for his 2004 campaign for the US Senate. It was a controversial race from the Republican end as the favored Jack Ryan was caught up in a scandalous divorce with a famous TV actress. Ryan was forced to withdraw from the race and Obama would be pitted against a carpetbagger from (guess where? Maryland) named Alan Keyes, a controversial black conservative, who had made two unsuccessful runs at the Presidency.
And as if Obama needed any help, he was pegged as the keynote speaker at the 2004 Democratic Convention, If John Kerry made people cringe with his own Mike Dukakis moment (he announced he was ready for service), Obama wowed the crowd with an electrifying speech as he concluded there was not a liberal America or a conservative America, there’s the United States of America. Obama’s call for a united country rang positively and from that point on, he was on peoples’ minds as a possible candidate in 2008.
Summary of offices held:
1997-2004: Illinois State Senator
2005-2008: US Senator, Illinois
What was going on: The Great Recession, mass shootings, The Affordable Care Act (Obamacare)
Scandals within the administration: Veterans Administration scandal, IRS targeting controversy, David Petraeus sex scandal
Why he was a good President: Let’s start with the Affordable Care act. Maybe not quite the healthcare version of Social Security but it does ensure that all Americans will be insured, regardless of health issues. Bin Laden was captured on his watch, and he found ways to enact progressive policies without the help of Congress. Plus, he was without a doubt one of the most persuasive Presidents in history.
Why he was a bad President: Well, he was black, wasn’t he? I’m sure that’s what some of the Trumpsters were thinking at least. Okay, to be serious though, he was a little skittish when it came to enforcing edicts overseas such as with Syria (on the other hand, he did deal with an incident involving Libya and stood up to Putin as best he could). He also was unable to work with the opposition though, frankly, I lay that more on the opposition.
What could have saved his Presidency: A quicker handle on the Russian election meddling might have helped. I also think he should have distanced himself from Hillary Clinton and encouraged Biden to run for President instead. It might not have saved the country but at least it would have saved us from Trump.
What could have destroyed his Presidency: A war with Russia which seems inevitable anyway, more realistically, if the economy had withered into a depression, Obama would have been the black Herbert Hoover.
Election of 2008: Already the highest African American office holder in the country, Obama formally announced his candidacy in February 2007. He tapped David Axelrod as his campaign manager, and they started an effective internet campaign.
Of course, 2008 was not supposed to be Obama’s year for this was the year Hillary Clinton expected to be coronated Queen of the United States and she began her campaign as if she was entitled to be the first woman President in history. She had a large contingent of mostly women, some who even threatened to vote Republican if Hillary was not nominated. Obama also had to contend with former VP Candidate John Edwards as well as another quixotic run by Joe Biden, a well-respected Senator, but never popular as a Presidential Candidate.
But it would be Mrs. Clinton that would give Obama the most headaches. She led early in the polls, and it looked like her coronation was inevitable. But Obama had developed a strong fundraising campaign and the fruits of his labor began to show as 2008 began. Obama won the Iowa caucus while Clinton took New Hampshire, and it was obvious that it would be a two way race.
Obama gained momentum in the South Carolina primary as he more or less took the African American vote away from the Clintons, who didn’t take the supposed betrayal very well. Mrs. Clinton ran a fairly mean spirited campaign for the most part, seeming more desperate every time Obama inched closer to the nomination to the point that she brought up the possibility that Obama could be assassinated much like RFK in 1968. The shocking suggestion was likely the final nail in her coffin.
Not that Obama himself didn’t have his slip ups. The same man who chastised Hillary Clinton by suggesting that silly season is over, proverbially shot himself in the foot when he suggested that when there is no hope, people cling to guns and religion. It likely lost him Pennsylvania in the primary.
But he won the big state of California, giving him enough delegates for nomination. Even then, Mrs. Clinton wouldn’t concede until California Senator Dianne Feinstein arranged a meeting where a deal may have been made. Obama would later appoint Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State.
There was considerably less drama on the Republican Side. The Maverick Senator from Arizona, John McCain, came in as the front runner and easily beat back competition from moderate Mitt Romney and evangelist Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee.
But McCain had a lot of work to do. By now, President Bush was about as popular as raw sewage and he had to balance a line between not losing favor within the party (There were some who didn’t think he was conservative enough on social issues) and losing independent voters who were especially sour on Bush. McCain also didn’t necessarily have the best campaign team as they seemed more focused on attacking Obama’s character and not his positions, something McCain himself found disgusting.
Perhaps McCain’s most cynical move was to nominate Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate. Palin was certainly a likeable young woman with lots of energy, but her inexperience in national politics showed when people got beneath the folksy exterior to find she wasn’t very knowledgeable when it came to international affairs.
McCain’s nail in the coffin though would come when the economy crashed in mid-September. Obama was able to address the crisis that would become the Great Recession while McCain, much better at international affairs than domestic, could only say that the fundamentals of the economy are sound.
And it didn’t help (though maybe it should have) that McCain, possibly one of the most honorable candidates ever to run for President, found himself defending Obama when a McCain supporter accused Obama of being an Arab. McCain tried to assure the woman that Obama was simply a man he disagreed with; he was just as American as he was.
In the end, Obama with his message of hope won the day and the election while McCain returned to the Senate but at least could hold his head high.
First term: The first Obama term began the way Bush’s second term had ended, with a financial crisis to deal with. Bush, against his own philosophy and with the help of both Obama and McCain, signed a bill to bail out the banks. President Obama would later direct TARP funds to bail out the struggling auto industry with the promise that the government would be paid back. The loans were successful though people were left thinking it was a bailout for the wealthy, especially in the case of the banks.
Obama also inherited two of Bush’s wars, the one in Afghanistan which kept plodding along, and the one in Iraq where Obama pledged to finally get out of (He had always opposed the Iraq war). He kept his promise though it would be a slow withdrawal. By 2012, the troops were finally out of Iraq.
Afghanistan would be another matter. Instead of withdrawing, Obama stepped up the military presence there hoping it would ultimately speed up the withdrawal much like Bush’s troop surge in Iraq ultimately helped the withdrawal there. Unfortunately, it didn’t, and the US would be mired in the conflict until Biden controversially sent the last troops home in 2021.
Obama’s pet project though was finally adapting a national health care plan for all. But, as usual, Americans don’t want to hear about health care costs until it is too late. He got absolutely no support from the Republicans and realized he would need all the Democrats to get what would become the Affordable Care Act in place. And there were a few Democrats, beholden to the insurance industry, who weren’t willing to go for what essentially would be universal health care. So, Obama negotiated with the insurance industry because, frankly, he had no choice, and they got a very comprehensive bill that would make health care much more affordable to most Americans. Obama enjoyed a Democratic House and Senate his first two years in office and despite the right wing alarm bells warning of death panels, Obama was able to make affordable health care, or Obamacare as the Republicans derisively called it, become the law of the land, with the conservative Supreme Court twice upholding it.
Though Obama had some accomplishments in the bank already, there were suspicions about how the ACA would affect Americans in the future. Meanwhile, there was a right wing movement that called themselves the Tea Party which basically was a faction of Obama haters and angry whites in general. The liberals laughed at them, referring to them as tea baggers, but they wouldn’t be laughing when they swept into the House in the 2010 midterms. These “tea baggers” would make life miserable for Obama, and at times, the whole country, for the next six years.
The second half of Obama’s term would be dominated by the use of executive orders since the Republican House more or less refused to work with him. He also had to deal with something called the birther movement which falsely claimed that Obama was actually born in Kenya.
Despite the obstacles though, Obama still added some accomplishments such as rescinding the controversial Don’t Ask Don’t Tell provision for gays in the Armed Forces. By now, the top brass was willing to accept gays in the military and, with a little prodding from Vice President Biden, Obama agreed.
He also scored the major military victory that George Bush was unable to achieve. In May 2011, a special ops mission ended in the killing of Osama Bin Laden. He was also President during the Arab Spring uprisings, meant to make the Arab countries a little more democratic but ultimately with mixed results. President Obama supported the concept, however.
It would be nice to say Obama’s first term ended with more of a bang than a whimper (though he scored points with his quick assistance after Hurricane Sandy blasted New Jersey, even earning praise from Republican Governor Chris Christie), but again, he wasn’t getting much help from the opposing party. The country was divided, and it was only going to get worse, tragically worse after Obama.
But all in all, Obama had maybe a 50-50 chance at re-election and did have better numbers than George Bush at the same time. The only question then being, would the Republicans be smart enough to go with another John McCain or would they go back into the Bush playbook again.