“Obama accomplishments: Reflections on the State of the Union” J. Frankel, Jan. 13, 2016
My view is that Obama has done amazingly well, though I realize that this view is not shared by the majority of voters.
When he took office the economy was in its worst plunge since the 1930s and in two unfortunate foreign wars. Franklin Roosevelt took office during an economic plunge and Abraham Lincoln during a war, but I can't think of a president who has had both. In addition, during most of his time in office, he has had to deal with a Republican-controlled Congress that has systematically opposed anything he proposes – even if it was something that they had previously favored.
Despite that, he has accomplished a lot, especially in the first two years of his term and now in his last two years. (In between, Congress blocked everything.) In his first term, the financial rescue plan and 2009 fiscal program rapidly ended the economic freefall and turned around the economy; six years later we are experiencing the longest and strongest spell of private job creation in American history. The US economy still leaves a lot to be desired; but it is doing better than most other countries. The White House got the Dodd-Frank financial reform bill through Congress (though the legislation was better before a succession of Republican steps weakened it). Obama got the Affordable Care Act adopted as well, a reform of health care that no previous president was able to do; it has succeeded in cutting the number of Americans who lack health insurance and also the cost of health care has been slowedcontrary to most predictions.
In the area of foreign policy, he got Osama bin Laden (a mission that George W. Bush had lost interest in, in his eagerness to invade Iraq).In 2015, just as the press was saying he was a lame duck, President Obama achieved a much-need nuclear agreement with Iran, normalization of relations with Cuba, the most important progress to address global climate change ever, and the Trans-Pacific Partnership (if Congress doesn't block it).
The press tends to think that the test of success is popularity polls; by that criterion he cannot currently be judged successful. But it he criterion is making the right choices out of available policy options and helping to make the world a better place, then in my book he has been successful.
Quotes in Chinese translation published in Chinese Social Sciences Today, Jan.18, 2016, page 3.