Judging President Obama

Tomorrow I'm getting on an airplane in Washington, DC and flying to Chicago to see President Obama's farewell address. As an OFA alum, i'm sad to see him go, and as a Democrat I'm sad to see him go, but more than anything, I'm sad to see him go as an American. President Obama has been an excellent leader, inspired millions, and never embarrassed us as a country with the taint of scandal or war. Compared to what is coming into office, I'll miss him.

Still, there are legitimate questions on whether or not the Obama era was good for the Democratic Party. Democrats end the President's term exiting the White House, down 12 Senate seats from their 2009 high, down some 70 seats in the U.S. House, having lost over 900 state legislative seats, and down to just over a dozen governors. States like Illinois, Maryland, Maine, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Michigan, states the President won twice, have Republican governors. State legislative chambers in Washington, Delaware, and Virginia, all twice going to the President, are teetering on the results of special elections in the coming weeks that will decide their majorities. Hillary Clinton carried a record low number of counties, and lost Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, becoming the first Democrat to lose any of those since 1988. The famous pollsters Stanley and Anna Greenberg sum it up nicely:

His legacy regrettably includes the more than 1,000 Democrats who lost their elections during his two terms. Republicans now have total control in half of America’s states.

I pin a large chunk of this on the operative class from the Obama-era. We took all the wrong lessons away from his electoral victories in both 2008 and 2012. The idea that demographics were destiny, that we only needed to talk to our base, that we won solely because of "big data" and great modeling of the electorate, and that we mostly won on the "emerging electorate," and not because of the collapsing economy in 2008, and beating Mitt Romney into the dirt with white working class voters in 2012. While I mostly blame the operatives, the President does have to share some of that blame.

Of course, politics are not how I or anyone else should judge President Obama alone. His record is extensive eight years later. 75 straight months of job growth after taking over an economy bleeding hundreds of thousands of jobs a month. The Iraq War is over. The Affordable Care Act is law. Relations are normalized with Cuba. The Paris Climate Change agreement. The Dodd-Frank stopped some of Wall Street's worst abuses. The Iran Agreement has stopped them from pursuing a nuclear bomb. The bi-lateral climate change agreement with China. Osama Bin Laden is dead. The Stimulus Bill created consistent growth in the economy and job markets. The American car makers in Detroit not only survived, they are thriving. Two Supreme Court Judges. The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act is law. Wages are finally back on the rise. Marriage Equality is the law of the land, while "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" is dead. A record number of pardons and commutations for non-violent drug offenders. This is just a small part of the President's numerous achievements in office. He leaves office with a growing economy, and a nation that is more secure than eight years ago.

You can't judge the President without both of these arguments being present. He is turning the country over to Donald Trump and unified Republican control of most of the American government. He also did a lot of amazing stuff along the way that made American life better. It's also worth noting the obvious, President Obama broke a major barrier in America- being the first non-white guy President. Donald Trump will undo a lot of his legacy, but President Obama will leave a long, long shadow over the capitol after him. He is as complicated to judge as any President before him, and is probably more likable than almost all of them.