[dropcap]A[/dropcap]s the Obama administration draws to a close, this is a good time to reflect on the accomplishments and failures of our outgoing president. In my eyes, he has been both a wonderful president and a terrible one at the same time. His accomplishments have been magnificent, but his failures have been disastrous. In this article, I would like to offer what I regard as his three greatest achievements among many. You can of course make your own list. In my next article, I would like to point out what I see as his three greatest failures.
His single greatest achievement as president is one for which he gets very little credit. When President Obama took office, the economy was in free fall, thanks to the subprime mortgage rip-off, which rocked the markets in October of 2008. By the time Obama was inaugurated in January of 2009, our national economy was losing nearly a million jobs a month. Major investment firms had tanked. The Dow-Jones index had fallen dramatically, and would eventually shed a full 50% of its value. There was widespread suffering. Millions of Americans were losing their homes, their jobs, and their dreams. Fox News was certain that Obama’s “socialist” policies would only make matters worse. They had a daily show called the Scenario Room (or something like that), predicting doom and gloom. They forecast that the Dow would fall to 2800, and tried their best to exploit the fears they were stoking, by selling us gold. But in March of 2009, the Dow bottomed at around 6600, and began an upward trek that continues to this day.
Not just a national meltdown. Global. So his single greatest achievement lay in the nearly unimaginable horrors you didn’t see happen. In short, Obama saved the world. Every one of us owes him a huge debt of thanks for that.
