Environmental policy
On September 30, 2009, the Obama
administration proposed new regulations on power plants, factories,
and oil refineries in an attempt to limit greenhouse gas emissions
and to curb global warming.
On April 20, 2010, an explosion
destroyed an offshore drilling rig at the Macondo Prospect in the
Gulf of Mexico, causing a major sustained oil leak. Obama visited the
Gulf, announced a federal investigation, and formed a bipartisan
commission to recommend new safety standards, after a review by
Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar and concurrent Congressional
hearings. He then announced a six-month moratorium on new deepwater
drilling permits and leases, pending regulatory review. As multiple
efforts by BP failed, some in the media and public expressed
confusion and criticism over various aspects of the incident, and
stated a desire for more involvement by Obama and the federal
government.
In July 2013, Obama expressed
reservations and said he "would reject the Keystone XL
pipeline if it increased carbon pollution" or "greenhouse
emissions." Obama's advisers called for a halt to petroleum
exploration in the Arctic in January 2013. On February 24, 2015,
Obama vetoed a bill that would have authorized the pipeline. It was
the third veto of Obama's presidency and his first major veto.
Obama emphasized the conservation of
federal lands during his term in office. He used his power under the
Antiquities Act to create 25 new national monuments during his
presidency and expand four others, protecting a total of 553,000,000
acres (224,000,000 ha) of federal lands and waters, more than any
other U.S. President.
Health care reform
Obama called for Congress to pass
legislation reforming health care in the United States, a key
campaign promise and a top legislative goal. He proposed an
expansion of health insurance coverage to cover the uninsured, to cap
premium increases, and to allow people to retain their coverage when
they leave or change jobs. His proposal was to spend $900 billion
over 10 years and include a government insurance plan, also known as
the public option, to compete with the corporate insurance sector as
a main component to lowering costs and improving quality of health
care. It would also make it illegal for insurers to drop sick people
or deny them coverage for pre-existing conditions, and require every
American to carry health coverage. The plan also includes medical
spending cuts and taxes on insurance companies that offer expensive
plans.
On July 14, 2009, House Democratic
leaders introduced a 1,017-page plan for overhauling the U.S. health
care system, which Obama wanted Congress to approve by the end of
2009. After much public debate during the Congressional summer
recess of 2009, Obama delivered a speech to a joint session of
Congress on September 9 where he addressed concerns over the
proposals. In March 2009, Obama lifted a ban on using federal funds
for stem cell research.
On November 7, 2009, a health care bill
featuring the public option was passed in the House. On December 24,
2009, the Senate passed its own bill—without a public option—on a
party-line vote of 60–39. On March 21, 2010, the Patient
Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) passed by the Senate in
December was passed in the House by a vote of 219 to 212. Obama
signed the bill into law on March 23, 2010.
The ACA includes health-related
provisions, most of which took effect in 2014, including expanding
Medicaid eligibility for people making up to 133% of the federal
poverty level (FPL) starting in 2014,[320] subsidizing insurance
premiums for people making up to 400% of the FPL ($88,000 for family
of four in 2010) so their maximum "out-of-pocket"
payment for annual premiums will be from 2% to 9.5% of income,
providing incentives for businesses to provide health care benefits,
prohibiting denial of coverage and denial of claims based on
pre-existing conditions, establishing health insurance exchanges,
prohibiting annual coverage caps, and support for medical research.
According to White House and CBO figures, the maximum share of income
that enrollees would have to pay would vary depending on their income
relative to the federal poverty level.
The costs of these provisions are
offset by taxes, fees, and cost-saving measures, such as new Medicare
taxes for those in high-income brackets, taxes on indoor tanning,
cuts to the Medicare Advantage program in favor of traditional
Medicare, and fees on medical devices and pharmaceutical companies;
there is also a tax penalty for those who do not obtain health
insurance, unless they are exempt due to low income or other reasons.
In March 2010, the CBO estimated that the net effect of both laws
will be a reduction in the federal deficit by $143 billion over the
first decade.
The law faced several legal challenges,
primarily based on the argument that an individual mandate requiring
Americans to buy health insurance was unconstitutional. On June 28,
2012, the Supreme Court ruled by a 5–4 vote in National
Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius that the mandate
was constitutional under the U.S. Congress's taxing authority. In
Burwell v. Hobby Lobby the Court ruled that "closely-held"
for-profit corporations could be exempt on religious grounds
under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act from regulations adopted
under the ACA that would have required them to pay for insurance that
covered certain contraceptives. In June 2015, the Court ruled 6–3
in King v. Burwell that subsidies to help individuals and
families purchase health insurance were authorized for those doing so
on both the federal exchange and state exchanges, not only those
purchasing plans "established by the State," as the
statute reads.
Energy policy
Prior to June 2014, Obama offered
substantial support for a broadly-based "All of the above"
approach to domestic energy policy, which Obama has maintained since
his first term and which he last confirmed at his State of the Union
speech in January 2014 to a mixed reception by both parties. In June
2014, Obama made indications that his administration would consider a
shift towards an energy policy more closely tuned to the
manufacturing industry and its impact on the domestic economy.
Obama's approach of selectively combining regulation and incentive to
various issues in the domestic energy policy, such as coal mining and
oil fracking, has received mixed commentary for not being as
responsive to the needs of the domestic manufacturing sector as
needed, following claims that the domestic manufacturing sector
utilizes as much as a third of the nation's available energy
resources.
Gun control
On January 16, 2013, one month after
the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, Obama signed 23 executive
orders and outlined a series of sweeping proposals regarding gun
control. He urged Congress to reintroduce an expired ban on
military-style assault weapons, such as those used in several recent
mass shootings, impose limits on ammunition magazines to 10 rounds,
introduce background checks on all gun sales, pass a ban on
possession and sale of armor-piercing bullets, introduce harsher
penalties for gun-traffickers, especially unlicensed dealers who buy
arms for criminals and approving the appointment of the head of the
federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives for the
first time since 2006. On January 5, 2016, Obama announced new
executive actions extending background check requirements to more gun
sellers. In a 2016 editorial in The New York Times, Obama compared
the struggle for what he termed "common-sense gun reform"
to women's suffrage and other civil rights movements in American
history.
2010 midterm
elections
Obama called the November 2, 2010
election, where the Democratic Party lost 63 seats in, and control
of, the House of Representatives, "humbling" and a
"shellacking." He said that the results came
because not enough Americans had felt the effects of the economic
recovery.
Cybersecurity and Internet policy
On November 10, 2014, President Obama
recommended the Federal Communications Commission reclassify
broadband Internet service as a telecommunications service in order
to preserve net neutrality. On February 12, 2013, President Obama
signed Executive Order 13636, "Improving Critical
Infrastructure Cybersecurity."
Government mass surveillance
In 2005 and 2006, Obama criticized
certain aspects of the Patriot Act for infringing too much on civil
liberties and sought as Senator to strengthen civil liberties
protections. In 2006, he voted to reauthorize a revised version of
the Patriot Act, saying the law was not ideal but that the revised
version had strengthened civil liberties. In 2011, he signed a
four-year renewal of the Patriot Act. Following the 2013 global
surveillance disclosures by whistleblower Edward Snowden, Obama
condemned the leak as unpatriotic, but called for increased
restrictions on the NSA to address violations of privacy. The
changes which Obama ordered have been described as "modest"
however.
Foreign policy
In February and March 2009, Vice
President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made
separate overseas trips to announce a "new era" in
U.S. foreign relations with Russia and Europe, using the terms
"break" and "reset" to signal major
changes from the policies of the preceding administration. Obama
attempted to reach out to Arab leaders by granting his first
interview to an Arab satellite TV network, Al Arabiya.
On March 19, Obama continued his
outreach to the Muslim world, releasing a New Year's video message to
the people and government of Iran. In April, Obama gave a speech in
Ankara, Turkey, which was well received by many Arab governments. On
June 4, 2009, Obama delivered a speech at Cairo University in Egypt
calling for "A New Beginning" in relations between
the Islamic world and the United States and promoting Middle East
peace.
On June 26, 2009, Obama responded to
the Iranian government's actions towards protesters following Iran's
2009 presidential election by saying: "The violence
perpetrated against them is outrageous. We see it and we condemn it."
While in Moscow on July 7, he responded to Vice President
Biden's comment on a possible Israeli military strike on Iran by
saying: "We have said directly to the Israelis that it is
important to try and resolve this in an international setting in a
way that does not create major conflict in the Middle East."
On September 24, 2009, Obama became the
first sitting U.S. president to preside over a meeting of the United
Nations Security Council.
In March 2010, Obama took a public
stance against plans by the government of Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu to continue building Jewish housing projects in
predominantly Arab neighborhoods of East Jerusalem. During the same
month, an agreement was reached with the administration of Russian
President Dmitry Medvedev to replace the 1991 Strategic Arms
Reduction Treaty with a new pact reducing the number of long-range
nuclear weapons in the arsenals of both countries by about a third.
Obama and Medvedev signed the New START treaty in April 2010, and the
U.S. Senate ratified it in December 2010.
In December 2011, Obama instructed
agencies to consider LGBT rights when issuing financial aid to
foreign countries. In August 2013, he criticized Russia's law that
discriminates against gays, but he stopped short of advocating a
boycott of the upcoming 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.
In December 2014, Obama announced that
he intended to normalize relationships between Cuba and the United
States. The countries' respective "interests sections" in
one another's capitals were upgraded to embassies on July 20, 2015.
In March 2015, Obama declared that he
had authorized U.S. forces to provide logistical and intelligence
support to the Saudis in their military intervention in Yemen,
establishing a "Joint Planning Cell" with Saudi
Arabia. In 2016, the Obama administration proposed a series of arms
deals with Saudi Arabia worth $115 billion. Obama halted the sale of
guided munition technology to Saudi Arabia after Saudi warplanes
targeted a funeral in Yemen's capital Sanaa, killing more than 140
people.
Before leaving office, Obama said
German Chancellor Angela Merkel had been his "closest
international partner" throughout his tenure as president.
War in Iraq
On February 27, 2009, Obama announced
that combat operations in Iraq would end within 18 months. His
remarks were made to a group of Marines preparing for deployment to
Afghanistan. Obama said, "Let me say this as plainly as I
can: by August 31, 2010, our combat mission in Iraq will end."
The Obama administration scheduled the withdrawal of combat troops
to be completed by August 2010, decreasing troop's levels from
142,000 while leaving a transitional force of about 50,000 in Iraq
until the end of 2011. On August 19, 2010, the last U.S. combat
brigade exited Iraq. Remaining troops transitioned from combat
operations to counter-terrorism and the training, equipping, and
advising of Iraqi security forces. On August 31, 2010, Obama
announced that the United States combat mission in Iraq was over. On
October 21, 2011 President Obama announced that all U.S. troops would
leave Iraq in time to be "home for the holidays."
In June 2014, following the capture of
Mosul by ISIS, Obama sent 275 troops to provide support and security
for U.S. personnel and the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad. ISIS continued to
gain ground and to commit widespread massacres and ethnic cleansing.
In August 2014, during the Sinjar
massacre, Obama ordered a campaign of U.S. airstrikes against ISIS.
By the end of 2014, 3,100 American
ground troops were committed to the conflict and 16,000 sorties were
flown over the battlefield, primarily by U.S. Air Force and Navy
pilots.
In early 2015, with the addition of the
"Panther Brigade" of the 82nd Airborne Division the
number of U.S. ground troops in Iraq surged to 4,400, and by
July American-led coalition air forces counted 44,000 sorties over
the battlefield.
War in Afghanistan
Early in his presidency, Obama moved to
bolster U.S. troop strength in Afghanistan. He announced an increase
in U.S. troop levels to 17,000 military personnel in February 2009 to
"stabilize a deteriorating situation in Afghanistan,"
an area he said had not received the "strategic attention,
direction and resources it urgently requires." He replaced
the military commander in Afghanistan, General David D. McKiernan,
with former Special Forces commander Lt. Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal
in May 2009, indicating that McChrystal's Special Forces experience
would facilitate the use of counterinsurgency tactics in the war. On
December 1, 2009, Obama announced the deployment of an additional
30,000 military personnel to Afghanistan and proposed to begin troop
withdrawals 18 months from that date;[ this took place in July 2011.
David Petraeus replaced McChrystal in June 2010, after McChrystal's
staff criticized White House personnel in a magazine article. In
February 2013, Obama said the U.S. military would reduce the troop
level in Afghanistan from 68,000 to 34,000 U.S. troops by February
2014.
In October 2015, the White House
announced a plan to keep U.S. Forces in Afghanistan indefinitely in
light of the deteriorating security situation.
Israel
In 2011, the United States vetoed a
Security Council resolution condemning Israeli settlements, with the
United States being the only nation to do so. Obama supports the
two-state solution to the Arab–Israeli conflict based on the 1967
borders with land swaps.
In June 2011, Obama said the bond
between the United States and Israel is "unbreakable."
During the initial years of the Obama administration, the U.S.
increased military cooperation with Israel, including increased
military aid, re-establishment of the U.S.-Israeli Joint Political
Military Group and the Defense Policy Advisory Group, and an increase
in visits among high-level military officials of both countries. The
Obama administration asked Congress to allocate money toward funding
the Iron Dome program in response to the waves of Palestinian rocket
attacks on Israel.
In 2013, Jeffrey Goldberg reported
that, in Obama's view, "with each new settlement
announcement, Netanyahu is moving his country down a path toward
near-total isolation." In 2014, Obama likened the Zionist
movement to the Civil Rights Movement in the United States. He said
both movements seek to bring justice and equal rights to historically
persecuted peoples. He explained, "To me, being pro-Israel
and pro-Jewish is part and parcel with the values that I've been
fighting for since I was politically conscious and started getting
involved in politics." Obama expressed support for Israel's
right to defend itself during the 2014 Israel–Gaza conflict. In
2015, Obama was harshly criticized by Israel for advocating and
signing the Iran Nuclear Deal; Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu, who had advocated the U.S. congress to oppose it, said the
deal was "dangerous" and "bad."
On December 23, 2016, under the Obama
Administration, the United States abstained from United Nations
Security Council Resolution 2334, which condemned Israeli settlement
building in the occupied Palestinian territories as a violation of
international law, effectively allowing it to pass. Netanyahu
strongly criticized the Obama Administration's actions, and the
Israeli government withdrew its annual dues from the organization,
which totaled $6 million, on January 6, 2017. On January 5, 2017,
the United States House of Representatives voted 342–80 to condemn
the UN Resolution.
Libya
In February 2011, protests in Libya
began against long-time dictator Muammar Gaddafi as part of the Arab
Spring. They soon turned violent. In March, as forces loyal to
Gaddafi advanced on rebels across Libya, calls for a no-fly zone came
from around the world, including Europe, the Arab League, and a
resolution passed unanimously by the U.S. Senate. In response to the
unanimous passage of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1973
on March 17, Gaddafi—who had previously vowed to "show no
mercy" to the rebels of Benghazi—announced an immediate
cessation of military activities, yet reports came in that his forces
continued shelling Misrata. The next day, on Obama's orders, the U.S.
military took part in air strikes to destroy the Libyan government's
air defense capabilities to protect civilians and enforce a
no-fly-zone, including the use of Tomahawk missiles, B-2 Spirits, and
fighter jets. Six days later, on March 25, by unanimous vote of all
its 28 members, NATO took over leadership of the effort, dubbed
Operation Unified Protector. Some Representatives questioned whether
Obama had the constitutional authority to order military action in
addition to questioning its cost, structure and aftermath.
Syrian Civil War
On August 18, 2011, several months
after the start of the Syrian Civil War, Obama issued a written
statement that said: "The time has come for President Assad
to step aside." This stance was reaffirmed in November
2015. In 2012, Obama authorized multiple programs run by the CIA and
the Pentagon to train anti-Assad rebels. The Pentagon-run program
was later found to have failed and was formally abandoned in October
2015.
In the wake of a chemical weapons
attack in Syria, formally blamed by the Obama administration on the
Assad government, Obama chose not to enforce the "red line"
he had pledged and, rather than authorize the promised military
action against Assad, went along with the Russia-brokered deal that
led to Assad giving up chemical weapons; however attacks with
chlorine gas continued. In 2014, Obama authorized an air campaign
aimed primarily at ISIL.
Death of Osama bin Laden
Starting with information received from
Central Intelligence Agency operatives in July 2010, the CIA
developed intelligence over the next several months that determined
what they believed to be the hideout of Osama bin Laden. He was
living in seclusion in a large compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, a
suburban area 35 miles (56 km) from Islamabad. CIA head Leon Panetta
reported this intelligence to President Obama in March 2011. Meeting
with his national security advisers over the course of the next six
weeks, Obama rejected a plan to bomb the compound, and authorized a
"surgical raid" to be conducted by United States Navy
SEALs. The operation took place on May 1, 2011, and resulted in the
shooting death of bin Laden and the seizure of papers, computer
drives and disks from the compound. DNA testing was one of five
methods used to positively identify bin Laden's corpse, which was
buried at sea several hours later. Within minutes of the President's
announcement from Washington, DC, late in the evening on May 1, there
were spontaneous celebrations around the country as crowds gathered
outside the White House, and at New York City's Ground Zero and Times
Square. Reaction to the announcement was positive across party
lines, including from former presidents Bill Clinton and George W.
Bush.
Iran nuclear talks
On October 1, 2009, the Obama
administration went ahead with a Bush administration program
increasing nuclear weapons production. The “Complex
Modernization” initiative expanded two existing nuclear sites
to produce new bomb parts. The administration built new plutonium
pits at the Los Alamos lab in New Mexico and expanded enriched
uranium processing at the Y-12 facility in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. In
November 2013, the Obama administration opened negotiations with Iran
to prevent it from acquiring nuclear weapons, which included an
interim agreement. Negotiations took two years with numerous delays,
with a deal being announced July 14, 2015. The deal, titled the
"Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action," saw the
removal of sanctions in exchange for measures that would prevent Iran
from producing nuclear weapons. While Obama hailed the agreement as
being a step towards a more hopeful world, the deal drew strong
criticism from Republican and conservative quarters, and from Israeli
prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. In addition, the transfer of $1.7
billion in cash to Iran shortly after the deal was announced was
criticized by the republican party. The Obama administration said
that the payment in cash was because of the "effectiveness of
U.S. and international sanctions." In order to advance the
deal, the Obama administration shielded Hezbollah from the Drug
Enforcement Administration's Project Cassandra investigation
regarding drug smuggling and from the Central Intelligence Agency.
On a sidenote, the very same year, in December 2015, Obama started a
$348 billion worth program to back the biggest U.S. buildup of
nuclear arms since Ronald Reagan left the White House.
Relations with Cuba
Since the spring of 2013, secret
meetings were conducted between the United States and Cuba in the
neutral locations of Canada and Vatican City. The Vatican first
became involved in 2013 when Pope Francis advised the U.S. and Cuba
to exchange prisoners as a gesture of goodwill. On December 10,
2013, Cuban President Raúl Castro, in a significant public moment,
greeted and shook hands with Obama at the Nelson Mandela memorial
service in Johannesburg.
In December 2014, after the secret
meetings, it was announced that Obama, with Pope Francis as an
intermediary, had negotiated a restoration of relations with Cuba,
after nearly sixty years of détente. Popularly dubbed the Cuban
Thaw, The New Republic deemed the Cuban Thaw to be "Obama's
finest foreign policy achievement." On July 1, 2015,
President Barack Obama announced that formal diplomatic relations
between Cuba and the United States would resume, and embassies would
be opened in Washington and Havana. The countries' respective
"interests sections" in one another's capitals were
upgraded to embassies on July 20 and August 13, 2015, respectively.
Obama visited Havana, Cuba for two days
in March 2016, becoming the first sitting U.S. president to arrive
since Calvin Coolidge in 1928.
Africa
Obama spoke in front of the African
Union in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on July 29, 2015, the first sitting
U.S. president to do so. He gave a speech encouraging the world to
increase economic ties via investments and trade with the continent,
and lauded the progress made in education, infrastructure, and
economy. He also criticized the lack of democracy and leaders who
refuse to step aside, discrimination against minorities (LGBT people,
religious groups and ethnicities), and corruption. He suggested an
intensified democratization and free trade, to significantly improve
the quality of life for Africans. During his July 2015 trip, Obama
also was the first U.S. president ever to visit Kenya, which is the
homeland of his father.
Hiroshima speech
On May 27, 2016, Obama became the first
sitting American president to visit Hiroshima, Japan, 71 years after
the U.S. atomic bombing of Hiroshima that ended World War II.
Accompanied by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzō Abe, Obama paid
tribute to the victims of the bombing at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial
Museum.
Russia
After Russia's invasion of Crimea in
2014, military intervention in Syria in 2015, and the interference in
the 2016 U.S. presidential election, Obama's Russia policy was widely
seen as a failure. George Robertson, a former UK defense secretary
and NATO secretary-general, said Obama had "allowed Putin to
jump back on the world stage and test the resolve of the West,"
adding that the legacy of this disaster would last.
Cultural and political image
Obama's family history, upbringing, and
Ivy League education differ markedly from those of African-American
politicians who launched their careers in the 1960s through
participation in the civil rights movement. Expressing puzzlement
over questions about whether he is "black enough," Obama
told an August 2007 meeting of the National Association of Black
Journalists that "we're still locked in this notion that if
you appeal to white folks then there must be something wrong."
Obama acknowledged his youthful image in an October 2007 campaign
speech, saying: "I wouldn't be here if, time and again, the
torch had not been passed to a new generation."
Obama is frequently referred to as an
exceptional orator. During his pre-inauguration transition period
and continuing into his presidency, Obama delivered a series of
weekly Internet video addresses. In his speeches as president, Obama
did not make more overt references to race relations than his
predecessors, but according to one study, he implemented stronger
policy action on behalf of African-Americans than any president since
the Nixon era.
Presidential approval ratings
According to the Gallup Organization,
Obama began his presidency with a 68% approval rating before
gradually declining for the rest of the year, and eventually
bottoming out at 41% in August 2010, a trend similar to Ronald
Reagan's and Bill Clinton's first years in office. He experienced a
small poll bounce shortly after the death of Osama bin Laden on May
2, 2011. This bounce lasted until around June 2011, when his approval
numbers dropped back to where they were previously. His approval
ratings rebounded around the same time as his reelection in 2012,
with polls showing an average job approval of 52% shortly after his
second inauguration. Despite approval ratings dropping to 39% in
late-2013 due to the ACA roll-out, they climbed to 50% in January
2015 according to Gallup.
Polls showed strong support for Obama
in other countries both before and during his presidency. In a
February 2009 poll conducted in Western Europe and the U.S. by Harris
Interactive for France 24 and the International Herald Tribune, Obama
was rated as the most respected world leader, as well as the most
powerful. In a similar poll conducted by Harris in May 2009, Obama
was rated as the most popular world leader, as well as the one figure
most people would pin their hopes on for pulling the world out of the
economic downturn.
Obama won Best Spoken Word Album Grammy
Awards for abridged audiobook versions of Dreams from My Father in
February 2006 and for The Audacity of Hope in February 2008. His
concession speech after the New Hampshire primary was set to music by
independent artists as the music video "Yes We Can,"
which was viewed 10 million times on YouTube in its first month and
received a Daytime Emmy Award. In December 2008 and in 2012, Time
magazine named Obama as its Person of the Year. The 2008 awarding
was for his historic candidacy and election, which Time described as
"the steady march of seemingly impossible accomplishments."
On May 25, 2011, Obama became the first President of the United
States to address both houses of the UK Parliament in Westminster
Hall, London. This was only the fifth occurrence since the start of
the 20th century of a head of state's being extended this invitation,
following Charles de Gaulle in 1960, Nelson Mandela in 1996, Queen
Elizabeth II in 2002 and Pope Benedict XVI in 2010.
On October 9, 2009, the Norwegian Nobel
Committee announced that Obama had won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize
"for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international
diplomacy and cooperation between peoples." Obama accepted
this award in Oslo, Norway on December 10, 2009, with "deep
gratitude and great humility." The award drew a mixture of
praise and criticism from world leaders and media figures. Obama's
peace prize was called a "stunning surprise" by The
New York Times. He became the fourth U.S. president to be awarded
the Nobel Peace Prize and the third to become a Nobel laureate while
in office. Obama's Nobel Prize has been viewed skeptically in
subsequent years, especially after the director of the Nobel
Institute, Geir Lundestad, said Obama's Peace Prize did not have the
desired effect.
Post-presidency (2017–present)
Obama's presidency ended at noon on
January 20, 2017, immediately following the inauguration of his
Republican successor, Donald Trump. After the inauguration, Obama
lifted off on Executive One, circled the White House, and flew to
Joint Base Andrews. The family currently rents a house in Kalorama,
Washington, D.C.
On March 2, 2017, the John F. Kennedy
Presidential Library and Museum awarded the annual Profile in Courage
Award to Obama "for his enduring commitment to democratic
ideals and elevating the standard of political courage." In
his first public appearance out of office, Obama appeared at a
seminar at the University of Chicago on April 24. The seminar was
aimed at the engagement with a new generation as well as an appeal
for their participation in politics. On May 4, three days ahead of
the French presidential election, Obama publicly endorsed centrist
Emmanuel Macron over right-wing populist Marine Le Pen: "He
appeals to people's hopes and not their fears, and I enjoyed speaking
to Emmanuel recently to hear about his independent movement and his
vision for the future of France." Macron went on to win the
election.
While in Berlin on May 25, Obama made a
joint public appearance with Chancellor Angela Merkel where he
stressed inclusion and for leaders to question themselves, Obama
having been formally invited to Berlin while still in office as part
of an effort to boost Merkel's re-election campaign. Obama traveled
to Kensington Palace in England and met with Prince Harry on May 27,
2017; Obama tweeted afterward that the two discussed their
foundations and offering condolences in the wake of the Manchester
Arena bombing that occurred five days prior.
After President Trump announced his
withdrawal of the United States from the Paris Agreement on June 1,
Obama released a statement disagreeing with the choice: "But
even in the absence of American leadership; even as this
administration joins a small handful of nations that reject the
future; I'm confident that our states, cities, and businesses will
step up and do even more to lead the way, and help protect for future
generations the one planet we've got."
After Senate Republicans revealed the
Better Care Reconciliation Act of 2017, their discussion draft of a
health care bill to replace the Affordable Care Act, on June 22,
Obama released a Facebook post calling the bill "a massive
transfer of wealth from middle-class and poor families to the richest
people in America." On September 19, while delivering the
keynote address at Goalkeepers, Obama admitted his frustration with
Republicans backing "a bill that will raise costs, reduce
coverage, and roll back protections for older Americans and people
with pre-existing conditions."
After Attorney General Jeff Sessions
announced the termination of the Deferred Action for Childhood
Arrivals (DACA) program on September 5, Obama released a Facebook
post criticizing the decision. Two days later, he partnered with
former presidents Jimmy Carter, George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and
George W. Bush to work with One America Appeal to help the victims of
Hurricane Harvey and Hurricane Irma in the Gulf Coast and Texas
communities.
Obama hosted the inaugural summit of
the Obama Foundation in Chicago on October 31. Obama intends for the
foundation to be the central focus of his post-presidency and part of
his ambitions for his subsequent activities following his presidency
to be more consequential than his time in office. Obama has also
been working on a Presidential memoir, in a reported $65 million deal
with Penguin Random House.
Obama went on an international trip
from November 28 to December 2, 2017, and visited China, India and
France. In China, he delivered remarks at the Global Alliance of SMEs
Summit in Shanghai and met with Chinese President Xi Jinping in
Beijing. He then went to India, where he spoke at the Hindustan
Times Leadership Summit before meeting with Indian Prime Minister
Narendra Modi over lunch. In addition, he held a town hall for young
leaders, organized by the Obama Foundation. He also met with the
Dalai Lama while in New Delhi. He ended his five-day trip in France
where he met with French President Emmanuel Macron, former President
Francois Hollande and Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo and then spoke at an
invitation-only event, touching on climate issues.
In May 2018, Obama criticized President
Trump's decision to withdraw from the nuclear deal with Iran under
the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action saying 'the deal was
working and it was in US interests.'
Barack and Michelle Obama signed a deal
on May 22, 2018 to produce docu-series, documentaries and features
for Netflix under the Obamas' newly formed production company, Higher
Ground Productions. On the deal, Michelle said "I have always
believed in the power of storytelling to inspire us, to make us think
differently about the world around us, and to help us open our minds
and hearts to others." Higher Ground's first film, American
Factory, won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature in 2020.
A package that contained a pipe bomb
was sent to Obama's home in Washington, D.C, on October 24, 2018. The
package was intercepted by the Secret Service during routine mail
screenings. Similar packages were sent to several other Democratic
leaders, mostly those who voiced strong objections to the policies of
Donald Trump and to CNN. Debbie Wasserman Schultz was addressed as
the sender of the package. On October 26, 2018, Cesar Sayoc was
arrested and faced five federal charges in Manhattan carrying a
combined maximum sentence of 48 years behind bars in relation to the
pipe bombs. He was sentenced to a maximum of 20 years in prison on
August 5, 2019.
In 2019, Barack and Michelle Obama
bought a home on Martha's Vineyard from Wyc Grousbeck.
On April 14, 2020, Obama endorsed his
former vice president Joe Biden for president in the 2020 election.
In May 2020, Obama criticized President
Trump for his handling of the coronavirus pandemic, calling his
response to the crisis "an absolute chaotic disaster."
Trump retaliated by accusing Obama of having committed "the
biggest political crime in American history", though he
refused to say what he was talking about, telling reporters "You
know what the crime is, the crime is very obvious to everybody."
On May 16, 2020, Obama delivered two
commencement speeches on behalf of the graduating youth who were not
able to go to their physical graduation ceremonies due to the
COVID-19 pandemic. His first speech was for part of the video
streamed online program, “Show Me Your Walk H.B.C.U. Edition”
virtual commencement. In his address, he spoke about systemic
racism, touching on both the coronavirus pandemic, the shooting death
of Ahmaud Arbery, and the fight to stay politically active saying,
"The fight for equality and justice begins with awareness,
empathy, passion, even righteous anger. Don't just activate yourself
online, change requires strategy, action, organizing, marching, and
voting in the real world like never before". His next
commencement address was a part of a nationally televised event,
titled Graduate Together: America Honors the High School Class of
2020 which aired on NBC.
Legacy
Job growth during the presidency of
Obama compared to other presidents, as measured as cumulative
percentage change from month after inauguration to end of his term
Obama's most significant legacy is
generally considered to be the Patient Protection and Affordable Care
Act (PPACA), provisions of which went into effect from 2010 to 2020.
Many attempts by Senate Republicans to repeal the PPACA, including a
"skinny repeal," have thus far failed. Together
with the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act amendment, it
represents the U.S. healthcare system's most significant regulatory
overhaul and expansion of coverage since the passage of Medicare and
Medicaid in 1965.
Many commentators credit Obama with
averting a threatened depression and pulling the economy back from
the Great Recession. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor
Statistics, the Obama administration created 11.3 million jobs from
the month after his first inauguration to the end of his term. In
2010, Obama signed into effect the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform
and Consumer Protection Act. Passed as a response to the financial
crisis of 2007–08, it brought the most significant changes to
financial regulation in the United States since the regulatory reform
that followed the Great Depression under Democratic President
Franklin D. Roosevelt.
In 2009, Obama signed into law the
National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2010, which
contained in it the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes
Prevention Act, the first addition to existing federal hate crime law
in the United States since Democratic President Bill Clinton signed
into law the Church Arson Prevention Act of 1996. The Matthew Shepard
and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act expanded existing
federal hate crime laws in the United States to apply to crimes
motivated by a victim's actual or perceived gender, sexual
orientation, gender identity, or disability, and dropped the
prerequisite that the victim be engaging in a federally protected
activity.
As president, Obama advanced LGBT
rights. In 2010, he signed the Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal Act,
which brought an end to "don't ask, don't tell" policy
in the U.S. armed forces that banned open service from LGB people;
the law went into effect the following year. In 2016, his
administration brought an end to the ban on transgender people
serving openly in the U.S. armed forces. A Gallup poll, taken in the
final days of Obama's term, showed that 68% of Americans believed the
U.S. had made progress in the situation for gays and lesbians during
Obama's eight years in office.
Obama substantially escalated the use
of drone strikes against suspected militants and terrorists
associated with al-Qaeda and the Taliban. In 2016, the last year of
his presidency, the US dropped 26,171 bombs on seven different
countries. Obama left about 8,400 US troops in Afghanistan, 5,262 in
Iraq, 503 in Syria, 133 in Pakistan, 106 in Somalia, seven in Yemen,
and two in Libya at the end of his presidency.
According to Pew Research Center and
United States Bureau of Justice Statistics, from December 31, 2009,
to December 31, 2015, inmates sentenced in US federal custody
declined by five percent. This is the largest decline in sentenced
inmates in US federal custody since Democratic President Jimmy
Carter. By contrast, the federal prison population increased
significantly under presidents Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, Bill
Clinton, and George W. Bush.
Obama left office in January 2017 with
a 60% approval rating. A 2018 survey of historians by the American
Political Science Association ranked Obama the 8th-greatest American
President. Obama gained 10 spots from the same survey in 2015 from
the Brookings Institution that ranked Obama the 18th-greatest
American President.
Presidential library
The Barack Obama Presidential Center is
Obama's planned presidential library. It will be hosted by the
University of Chicago and located in Jackson Park on the South Side
of Chicago.
Bibliography
Dreams from My Father, 1995
The Audacity of Hope, 2006
Of Thee I Sing, 2010
Audiobooks
2006: The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on
Reclaiming the American Dream (read by the author), Random House
Audio, ISBN 978-0739366417