January 25, 2016
This week, President Obama delivers his final State of the Union address to the Joint Session of Congress. While it will detail his legislative agenda for the final year of his presidency, it is being widely anticipated as a retrospective and celebration of his two terms in office, which by all objective accounts, have been an unqualified success.
After a surprising landslide victory over Republican Senator and Vietnam war hero John McCain in November 2008, largely brought about by widespread (and ultimately justified) panic over the outset of a global financial crisis. Mr Obama secured 53% of the vote (the first Democrat in 32 years to win a majority of the popular vote) and 384 electoral votes compared to a 46% tally and 154 electoral votes for his GOP opponent. In a country that had been deeply split in half by partisan lines for the past few election cycles, it was seen as a clear repudiation of the preceding Bush presidency (now widely acknowledged by historians as the worst crisis ever in American leadership). Also, for the first ever African American nominee of a major party to win such a handsome victory indicated that the country was on its way towards shedding its tragic racist past.
On January 20, 2009, a rainy day in Washington DC, the president-elect, flanked by his beautiful wife Michelle and two lovely daughters, took the oath of office and immediately set about to heal a nation and salvage both its international reputation and domestic economy. The enormity of the task facing him was immediately apparent, and he set about to work almost immediately. Along with his historic victory, the American people had also returned to Washington a dramatically increased Democratic congressional majority - an additional 35 seats in the House of Representatives (a whopping 106 seat majority) and eight additional seats in the Senate, just one shy of a filibuster proof majority, although the defection of Connecticut Independent Joe Lieberman to the Republican caucus a few months later dwindled their ranks by one.
President Obama surprised political pundits and most of the entire country by selecting the most ideologically diverse cabinet in modern American history. True to his campaign rhetoric, the new president seemed intent on governing by consensus and emphasizing unity instead of ramming through a rabidly partisan agenda. A few key appointments signaled what the new administration's priorities would be. Former Vice President Al Gore was tapped to head an energy task force that was charged with combating global warming and achieving energy independence within a decade. Massachusetts Senator John Kerry was appointed as Secretary of State while Indiana Republican Dick Lugar took over at the Pentagon.
The first year was a difficult one for the new administration. The burgeoning financial crisis, culminating in a market crash in March of 2009, meant that it had to delay several of its legislative priorities, especially as it had been financially handcuffed by a hasty 700 billion bailout package passed just before the elections, which he had supported as a Senator. Obama took the unique step of reaching out directly to the American people through TV spots, emails and internet clips (reminiscent of FDR's fireside radio chats), calling on them to sacrifice and work together to move beyond the crisis.
On the international front, Obama's wildly successful world tour a few months into his presidency announced to the globe that America was back. He was able to use the newfound enthusiasm generated by the new administration in Europe to enlist new support for NATO's effort in Afghanistan, as well as persuade more global support as the invasion of Iraq drew down. A belligerent Russia's continuing aggression towards its neighbors was a source of headache, but the State department drew plaudits for the diplomatic manner in which it resolved their invasion of Moldova.
After the first two years, while the president remained personally popular among the vast majority of the country, there was a wide degree of frustration at the frustratingly incremental pace at which the economy was moving forward. President Obama received a crushing personal blow when his health care proposal, shepherded through Congress by his staunch ally and new Majority Leader, Hillary Rodham Clinton, failed to make it through the legislature, railroaded by an unusual coalitions of conservative Republicans, who were wary of the mandates contained in the proposal, and liberal Democrats, uneasy with the power insurance companies continued to wield under the new proposal. These frustrations were taken out on Congressional Democrats in the 2010 midterms, who unexpectedly lost 12 seats in the House of Representatives, and gained only one seat, far less than projected, in the Senate.
Midway through 2011, there was rumblings developing as to whether President Obama would make it to a second term. A rejuvenated Newt Gingrich emerged as a populist conservative champion, launching a presidential bid for 2012 by lashing out against the deep cuts in defense spending, as well as closure of corporate tax loopholes, which had caused an initial freeze in job growth. Several other Republicans who jumped into the primary race included vanquished 2008 VP nominee Sarah Palin, as well as former governors Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, Mitt Romney of Massachusetts, Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, and Mike Huckabee of Arkansas. On the Democratic side, there were a few threats of a primary challenge from several elements of the progressive wing, who were fed up with the president's conciliatory approach towards the increasingly irrelevant Republican Party. However, no viable candidate offered to take on such a futile task. Senator Clinton spent months denying claims by her rabid supporters that she would run for the 2012 nomination.
2011 turned out to be a massively successful year for the president on several fronts. The bold investments in new technologies began to pay off, causing a sudden boom for the economy and creating hundreds of thousands of new jobs. The tragic passing of Senator Ted Kennedy breathed new life into the attempt to secure universal health care, a cause that had been dear to his heart. President Obama, flanked by Senator Clinton of New York and Senator Patrick Kennedy of Rhode Island (son of Ted Kennedy) signed the new bill, which had passed overwhelmingly in both houses, in honor of the departed Lion of the Senate.
On the international front, a historic deal was brokered in the Mideast that finally arrived upon a two-state solution. The leaders of Israel and the new state of Palestine, as well as President Obama and Prime Minister Cameron of the UK were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Obama became the third sitting US president after Teddy Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson to be accorded this honor. The trial of renowned terrorist Osama bin Laden (who had been captured 7 months into Obama's presidency) at the World Court in the Hague, as well as his execution, also generated a lot of goodwill for the president.
President Obama won reelection handily in 2012 with 67% of the vote and over 500 electoral votes. The rest of the vote was divided between his two conservative challengers, both bloody from the mess that was the Republican primary, where the economic royalist wing and the theocratic wing of the party were pitted against each other for control of the party. Mike Huckabee defected to form the American Christian Party, while Mitt Romney represented what was left of the Republican Party. Between them, they were able to capture the states of Utah, Nebraska, Idaho, Oklahoma and Kentucky.
Obama will undoubtedly end his successful second term as one of the great leaders in modern history. From his drastic overhaul of the public education system to the abolition on the War on Drugs, which was replaced by a sensible rehabilitation policy; from the massive foreign aid aimed at kickstarting the economies of Africa, to the complete weaning off foreign oil, it is hard to remember another figure who has had such a profound effect in such a short period of time. While he wisely rebuffs calls for the repeal of the 22nd amendment in order to allow him to run for a third term (which polls have shown have more than enough public support) and in typical humble fashion, laughs off suggestions that his image be added to Mount Rushmore, he undoubtedly has left an indelible mark on American presidential history.
His refusal to endorse a successor makes the ongoing Democratic primary race one of the more exciting in history. Joe Biden, his loyal Vice President, obviously refuses to run due to age and health reasons, and Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, his staunch ally in Congress, who was instrumental in so much of his legislative agenda, appears adamant on her Shermanesque pledge not to enter the race, despite her massive popularity. Alas, it seems she feels completely at home in the Senate.
Polls of the upcoming contests in Iowa and New Hampshire show an incredibly close race between the seven contenders: Texas Governor Rick Noriega, Alabama Senator Artur Davis, Secretary of State Susan Rice, South Dakota Senator Stephanie Herseth-Sandlin, Pennsylvania Governor Patrick Murphy, former California Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez, and Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown.