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Overall, how do you grade President Obama's performance during his first three years as President?
How is President Obama doing after three years in office?
Economy
After increasing substantially during the opening months of his Presidency, the official United States unemployment rate has declined fairly steadily for over two years. But it has been a slow decline. Millions still remain unemployed, some for years, and the official national unemployment rate remains higher than when Obama took office according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics*. Perhaps even more important, many of the unemployed seem to be discouraged and sitting at home instead of doing something constructive like actively looking for work, doing volunteer work, etc.
Obama has failed on his commitment to cut the huge budget deficits of George W. Bush. Indeed, the deficit this year is expected to be about $1.3 trillion dollars, and the national debt has increased dramatically during Obama’s first three years in office. Indeed, much of the drop in the unemployment rate can probably be credited to the deficit spending to “buy” jobs. If the deficits aren’t cut, we may face problems similar in some aspects to those Greece is currently facing in the future. Our short term gain can lead to long term pain if we don’t make changes.
Obama’s bailout of GM seems to have worked out better than perhaps even his supporters expected. However, for those of us who would like to see a progression toward electric and hybrid vehicles, as well as more use of mass transit, GM’s success is not all positive.
On balance, the economy has shown some improvement in recent years, but it remains fragile and a worse recession can come unless the huge budget deficits are cut.
International Issues
Obama has improved international relations compared to George W. Bush. Bush had managed to offend many even among our nation’s allies.
However, Obama failed on his commitment to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay, and many prisoners remain held without being tried. He missed his timetable on withdrawing U.S. forces from Iraq. And now that they have finally basically been withdrawn, conditions there seem to be much worse than he claimed he would leave them in when U.S. troops withdrew.
As promised, Obama escalated the war in Afghanistan, before seeking to reduce troops there. Results in Afghanistan have been questionable.
Obama fulfilled a commitment to seek to kill or capture Osama Bin Laden. But Bin Laden’s death in Pakistan doesn’t seem to have reduced the world terror threat. And many, including me, feel that Bin Laden could have been captured by Special Forces just as quickly or maybe even quicker (and with fewer innocent lives being lost) without the use of thousands of ground forces and bombing by drones in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Perhaps even more important in some ways, in recent months the U.S. has announced arms deals and plans for such deals with other countries (Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Israel, Saudi Arabia, etc.) that may cause major problems in the future if those nations’ current or future leaders use them for the wrong purposes. The short term jobs created for private companies contracting with the Defense Department and the good relations with the countries receiving the weapons are not worth the long term risks in my opinion. This could have the biggest negative long term impact of any of Obama’s decisions on international issues.
Moral Issues
The President has retained his pro-choice view on abortion and his support for homosexuals. He probably hasn’t been as active in supporting these issue as the liberals would like, but he has succeeded in offending those (including me) who oppose abortion and same-sex marriage.
Health Care
Obama did implement a health care reform plan as promised. Many of its effects remain to be seen. To get support for it from the health care industry, he provided them benefits up front, and in an effort to cover everyone, he instituted a plan that many economists say is not feasible over the long term. And the requirement for everyone to buy private health insurance may be unconstitutional. On balance, I feel Obama had good intentions, but in an effort to please enough people to get the votes for passage, he created a plan that is economically unfeasible and unconstitutional.
If as expected the Republicans take control of Congress in 2012, Republicans and conservative Democrats may throw the entire plan out, both the good and bad aspects of it. Personally, I think his plan will either be repealed or ruled entirely unconstitutional before the final aspects of it are implemented.
Environmental Issues
Obama has made progress on some issues compared to the Bush administration. But he has not taken the strong steps that environmentalists would have liked to reduce oil drilling, coal mining, and natural gas exploration and to increase use of mass transit.
Conclusions
Some negatives: The federal budget deficit remains huge. The unemployment rate remains high. Military spending remains exorbitant, and Iraq and Afghanistan seem unstable. Our relations with Iran’s government may be even worse than they were under Bush, which is saying a lot. The health care reform plan seems economically unfeasible and unconstitutional. And the President’s stance on moral issues offends many.
Some positives: If his assumptions come to be, the budget deficits will drop in upcoming years. The unemployment rate is dropping, most troops are out of Iraq and plans are to withdraw those in Afghanistan. Also, Obama basically did what he said he would do on health care and moral issues, which if not good is at least being true to his word.
But, the long term effect of Obama’s policies remains to be seen. As a conservative on fiscal and moral issues, I give Obama a failing grade for his huge budget deficits, military spending, and views on same-sex marriage and abortion. Liberals would likely grade him much higher. As a liberal on environmental and social issues, I give Obama a B for his above average efforts on those things. He has sought to improve the environment and improve the social safety net, though I’d prefer he did much more and in a more economically justifiable way. I’ll give him an overall grade of D, which is below average, but better than the F I give George W. Bush (tax cuts to the rich, huge military spending, and big budget deficits, starting wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and a poor record on environmental and social issues, etc., though I credit Bush for his opposition to abortion.).
Some can say Obama inherited problems from Bush, which is true. But Obama promised during his campaign in 2008 to correct those problems, and thus far he hasn’t done so very well overall, as I see it. Thus, Obama gets an overall grade of D from me.
END NOTES:
* Unemployment Rate (Monthly, 2002-2012); Databases, Tables & Calculations; Bureau of Labor Statistics; United States Department of Labor. http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS14000000 (Webpage accessed February 13, 2012.)
