Great article
http://www.dailywire.com/news/12575...m_content=062316-news&utm_campaign=benshapiro
According to Lanny Davis, former special counsel to President Clinton and longtime Democratic consultant, Barack Obama will be considered one of history’s great presidents. What makes Obama so spectacular? According to Davis, to be a great president requires a combination of four factors:
1) unique circumstances making a major impact on the nation’s history (e.g., Washington and Jefferson as framers and setting important precedents for the presidency for future generations); 2) successfully addressing one or more major national crises (Lincoln/the Civil War and FDR/the Great Depression and World War II); 3) having significant positive impacts on economic/social changes or in foreign policy; and 4) enhancing the powers and effectiveness of the presidency and the future of their political parties.
Davis then ranks his top-tier presidents (Washington, Jefferson, Jackson, Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt and FDR) and his second-tier presidents (Monroe, Polk, McKinley, Wilson, Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Reagan and Clinton). So, where does Obama stack up? According to Davis, “there is little doubt that future historians will rank him high in this second tier.” His accomplishments: Obamacare, “digging the country out of an economic Great Recession,” his election as the first black president.
This is weak tea.
Here’s where Obama actually stacks up on these four factors.
1. Unique Circumstances. Obama did face a severe economic downturn when he assumed office. That’s far from rare in American history. According to 247wallst.com, America had either depressions or recessions in 1797 (under Adams), 1807 (under Jefferson), 1815-1821 (under Madison and Monroe), 1837 (under Van Buren), 1857 (under Buchanan), 1873 (under Grant), 1893 (under Cleveland), 1907 (under Teddy Roosevelt), 1920-21 (under Harding), the Great Depression (under Hoover and FDR), 1973 (under Nixon), and the Carter years and early Reagan years. That leaves aside stock market crashes under Reagan, the mild economic downturn under George H.W. Bush, the bursting of the internet bubble under Bill Clinton. The question is what he did with those circumstances. He proceeded to lead one of the the weakest recoveries in American history.
2. Successfully Addressing One Or More National Crises. Davis gives Obama credit for addressing the Great Recession, although his recovery was tepid at best, the worst since the Great Depression. Average annual growth has been the weakest since 1949, at just a 2.1 percent growth per year. The expansion has been long, but it’s been seriously underproductive. On foreign policy, Obama has only exacerbated the national crisis surrounding terror, presiding over a massive increase in the number of terror attacks on American soil. He’s also presided over the collapse of race relations in the United States; when he took office, two out of three Americans thought race relations were good, but he leaves office with nearly two in three Americans thinking the reverse.
3. Having Significant Impacts on Domestic Or Foreign Policy. Obama’s biggest domestic policy “achievement,” Obamacare, has increased costs and premiums, thrown Americans off their preferred health insurance plans, and separated them from their doctors, all while overburdening medical care providers and placing insurance companies under the financial gun. It will be repealed with Obama’s ouster. His immigration policy has left millions of illegal immigrants adrift, and his foreign policy has been a series of appeasements and blunders, resulting the rise of ISIS, a genocide in Syria, the unilateral surrender of Iraq, the incompetent prosecution of the war in Afghanistan, the regional empowerment and global legitimization of the Iranian terror regime, the creation of dictatorship in Turkey, the empowerment of a dictatorship in Russia, and the expansion of Chinese power; he’s weakened American allies all around the globe.
4. Enhancing The Future Of The Presidency And His Political Party. The presidency is now more powerful than it was under his predecessors – but that’s not a particularly good measure of “greatness,” particularly since he’ll be handing over that power to Donald Trump. And Obama has devastated his political party. He’s lost nearly 1,000 seats across the country for his party. His party controls just 18 governorships. He’s lost the Senate, and he’s lost the House, and now he’s lost the White House. The Democrats are in the weakest position they’ve occupied since 1920 on the state level.
And no, Barack Obama does not receive extra credit because of the color of his skin.
So, where does Obama stack up? It’s rare that historians rank two-term presidents among the nation’s worst. The only two-term president often included in that list is George W. Bush, and that’s largely due to the economic collapse of 2008. If not for that, he’d rank somewhere in the middle. In all likelihood, Obama will rank slightly above Jimmy Carter but below Richard Nixon; historians will probably place him above George W. Bush but well below Bill Clinton or even LBJ. He’ll rank as a rotten president, not the worst ever – but certainly not among the best.
Which is fitting. In the end, Obama was a forgettable president domestically and a disastrous one in terms of foreign policy. History will not treat him kindly; he’ll fade into obscurity rather than growing into historical prominence. Which is probably his worst nightmare.
http://www.dailywire.com/news/12575...m_content=062316-news&utm_campaign=benshapiro
According to Lanny Davis, former special counsel to President Clinton and longtime Democratic consultant, Barack Obama will be considered one of history’s great presidents. What makes Obama so spectacular? According to Davis, to be a great president requires a combination of four factors:
1) unique circumstances making a major impact on the nation’s history (e.g., Washington and Jefferson as framers and setting important precedents for the presidency for future generations); 2) successfully addressing one or more major national crises (Lincoln/the Civil War and FDR/the Great Depression and World War II); 3) having significant positive impacts on economic/social changes or in foreign policy; and 4) enhancing the powers and effectiveness of the presidency and the future of their political parties.
Davis then ranks his top-tier presidents (Washington, Jefferson, Jackson, Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt and FDR) and his second-tier presidents (Monroe, Polk, McKinley, Wilson, Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Reagan and Clinton). So, where does Obama stack up? According to Davis, “there is little doubt that future historians will rank him high in this second tier.” His accomplishments: Obamacare, “digging the country out of an economic Great Recession,” his election as the first black president.
This is weak tea.
Here’s where Obama actually stacks up on these four factors.
1. Unique Circumstances. Obama did face a severe economic downturn when he assumed office. That’s far from rare in American history. According to 247wallst.com, America had either depressions or recessions in 1797 (under Adams), 1807 (under Jefferson), 1815-1821 (under Madison and Monroe), 1837 (under Van Buren), 1857 (under Buchanan), 1873 (under Grant), 1893 (under Cleveland), 1907 (under Teddy Roosevelt), 1920-21 (under Harding), the Great Depression (under Hoover and FDR), 1973 (under Nixon), and the Carter years and early Reagan years. That leaves aside stock market crashes under Reagan, the mild economic downturn under George H.W. Bush, the bursting of the internet bubble under Bill Clinton. The question is what he did with those circumstances. He proceeded to lead one of the the weakest recoveries in American history.
2. Successfully Addressing One Or More National Crises. Davis gives Obama credit for addressing the Great Recession, although his recovery was tepid at best, the worst since the Great Depression. Average annual growth has been the weakest since 1949, at just a 2.1 percent growth per year. The expansion has been long, but it’s been seriously underproductive. On foreign policy, Obama has only exacerbated the national crisis surrounding terror, presiding over a massive increase in the number of terror attacks on American soil. He’s also presided over the collapse of race relations in the United States; when he took office, two out of three Americans thought race relations were good, but he leaves office with nearly two in three Americans thinking the reverse.
3. Having Significant Impacts on Domestic Or Foreign Policy. Obama’s biggest domestic policy “achievement,” Obamacare, has increased costs and premiums, thrown Americans off their preferred health insurance plans, and separated them from their doctors, all while overburdening medical care providers and placing insurance companies under the financial gun. It will be repealed with Obama’s ouster. His immigration policy has left millions of illegal immigrants adrift, and his foreign policy has been a series of appeasements and blunders, resulting the rise of ISIS, a genocide in Syria, the unilateral surrender of Iraq, the incompetent prosecution of the war in Afghanistan, the regional empowerment and global legitimization of the Iranian terror regime, the creation of dictatorship in Turkey, the empowerment of a dictatorship in Russia, and the expansion of Chinese power; he’s weakened American allies all around the globe.
4. Enhancing The Future Of The Presidency And His Political Party. The presidency is now more powerful than it was under his predecessors – but that’s not a particularly good measure of “greatness,” particularly since he’ll be handing over that power to Donald Trump. And Obama has devastated his political party. He’s lost nearly 1,000 seats across the country for his party. His party controls just 18 governorships. He’s lost the Senate, and he’s lost the House, and now he’s lost the White House. The Democrats are in the weakest position they’ve occupied since 1920 on the state level.
And no, Barack Obama does not receive extra credit because of the color of his skin.
So, where does Obama stack up? It’s rare that historians rank two-term presidents among the nation’s worst. The only two-term president often included in that list is George W. Bush, and that’s largely due to the economic collapse of 2008. If not for that, he’d rank somewhere in the middle. In all likelihood, Obama will rank slightly above Jimmy Carter but below Richard Nixon; historians will probably place him above George W. Bush but well below Bill Clinton or even LBJ. He’ll rank as a rotten president, not the worst ever – but certainly not among the best.
Which is fitting. In the end, Obama was a forgettable president domestically and a disastrous one in terms of foreign policy. History will not treat him kindly; he’ll fade into obscurity rather than growing into historical prominence. Which is probably his worst nightmare.
