What will be President Obama's "legacy"?

CPT Jack Durish — Thu, 18 Feb 2016 09:31:55 -0500

President Obama is concerned with his legacy. He's commented on the subject frequently enough. Sadly, no one gets to write their own legacy. It will be written for them. To be fair, a person's legacy may be debated in their own time, but it won't really be known until tempers subside and calmer reflection prevails. But, that shouldn't stop us, should it? Obviously, it hasn't stopped "the media". It hasn't stopped the DNC. It hasn't stopped the leaders on the Left or the Right, the Conservatives or (what we laughingly call) the Liberals. Why should it stop us?

So here's your chance to wade in. Let it rip, for good or for evil or anything in between. It doesn't really matter inasmuch as We the People who serve/served won't have the final say, especially not in this time. But it feels good to vent...

Response by SFC Justin Scott made Feb 18 at 2016 9:34 AM

SFC Justin Scott — Thu, 18 Feb 2016 09:34:02 -0500

Honestly, I don't think history will look favorably on him or his predecessor! Reestablishing relations with Cuba will likely be viewed as the only worthwhile thing to come of his entire 8 years in office.

Response by SPC(P) Jay Heenan made Feb 18 at 2016 9:34 AM

SPC(P) Jay Heenan — Thu, 18 Feb 2016 09:34:17 -0500

Well this ought to get interesting, I am putting together a list that I will add later. Stay tuned, I'm probably going to upset some folks!

Response by Sgt Tom Cunnally made Feb 18 at 2016 10:07 AM

Sgt Tom Cunnally — Thu, 18 Feb 2016 10:07:42 -0500

I strongly believe Obama's legacy will be one of the most divisive and partisan presidents in our nation's history. His policies have divided this country so much it may never recover.

Response by 1LT Aaron Barr made Feb 18 at 2016 10:08 AM

1LT Aaron Barr — Thu, 18 Feb 2016 10:08:53 -0500

Obama's legacy is a weakened, divided and worse off America than it was when he took office. Perhaps the only benefit to Obama's 8 years is that the real face of radical liberalism/Marxism has come to the fore for all to see and the race card's been so overplayed that it's lost a lot of its power.

Response by SSG Audwin Scott made Feb 18 at 2016 10:19 AM

SSG Audwin Scott — Thu, 18 Feb 2016 10:19:17 -0500

Let's see, He was the President that sent out a team to capture Osama Bin Laden......Gas has been pretty cheap for me.....Guess no one wants to give credit for those two things though.

Response by LTC Private RallyPoint Member made Feb 18 at 2016 11:08 AM

LTC Private RallyPoint Member — Thu, 18 Feb 2016 11:08:06 -0500

I think it depends entirely on who you ask. To anti-gay rights conservatives, Obama's presidency was a disaster, but to the LGBT community it was right up there with freeing the slaves. Its all about perspective.

As a fiscal moderate I'm not too happy with his spending, but even less happy with the right's tax cutting, so I'll call fiscal policy a wash.

On foreign policy again there was good and bad, but these are complex issues that cannot be answered with a simple partisan sound byte. The Iran deal is an unmitigated disaster according to the talking heads on the right and an amazing success according to the talking heads on the left. The truth is that it is complicated, and too early to tell. I am of the opinion that diplomacy is better than bombs in the extremely vast majority of situation, but not all situations.

On Cuba, I applaud Obama's attempt to reestablish relations and honestly believe that at since the collapse of the Soviet Union the Cuban Embargo has succeeded at nothing other than keeping the Castro regime in power.

Society is moving to the left, and President Obama has helped that movement. From revisiting mandatory minimum sentences and the problem of over-incarceration and private for-profit prisons to the national realization (at least among those not on the extreme right) that gay rights, like women's rights and racial minority rights are HUMAN rights.

As Obama's presidency moves farther and farther into the past, I believe history look back very fondly on him.

Response by CPT Private RallyPoint Member made Feb 18 at 2016 11:11 AM

CPT Private RallyPoint Member — Thu, 18 Feb 2016 11:11:58 -0500

CPT Jack Durish He had to since someone decided to erroneously ship a Hellfire missile to Cuba, to get it back.

http://www.popularmechanics.com/military/weapons/news/a19468/cuba-returns-wayward-hellfire-missile/

Cuba Returns America's Wayward Hellfire Missile

The tank-killing missile was mistakenly sent to the formerly hostile island. But at least they were nice about it.

Response by SSG Private RallyPoint Member made Feb 18 at 2016 12:38 PM

SSG Private RallyPoint Member — Thu, 18 Feb 2016 12:38:01 -0500

Other than for Obamacare, I think history will show that Obama mostly "stayed the course" during his time as president. I imagine that he will be knocked some for his foreign policy, but not enough to warrant overt consideration.

Response by Maj Private RallyPoint Member made Feb 18 at 2016 12:46 PM

Maj Private RallyPoint Member — Thu, 18 Feb 2016 12:46:13 -0500

Positive - .99 gasoline; 6 year stock market rally; righted economy; *ObamaCare; Cuban relations

Negative - democratic party infighting; failures to effectively leave Afghanistan and Iraq; failure to close Gitmo; Libya & Syria political failures; DoJ gun running; Hillary as SoS; *ObamaCare; Military cuts; political losses to Putin

I'm sure I missed a bunch but I'm doing this cold.

*ObamaCare was a good effort but a failure in delivery.

Response by CPL Brian Clouser made Feb 18 at 2016 2:23 PM

CPL Brian Clouser — Thu, 18 Feb 2016 14:23:14 -0500

Obama's legacy? That an easy one. He will be remember for 1) gutting the military, 2) Using unconstitutional E.O.s and E.A. to bypass Congress. 3) Cutting 5 Billions from the V.A. budget to fund his programs for the illegals and terrorist refugees. 4) Giving aid to the enemy. 5)Benghazi
The list is a long one and there is nothing good in it Thank to Obama and his liberal "yes men" cohorts. this is closer to armed rebellion than its has been since 1860.( If its come to that I'm on the side of the Constitution and not on the side of the Government). Race relationship are worst that it was in the 1960 or better yet from 1865 thru 1960s
Like I said the list is a long one. We as a nation might never recover from Obama's 8 misspent years.

Response by SSgt Christopher Brose made Feb 18 at 2016 2:58 PM

SSgt Christopher Brose — Thu, 18 Feb 2016 14:58:18 -0500

Obama is the first Affirmative Action president. That's his legacy.

Response by Alan K. made Feb 19 at 2016 8:11 AM

Alan K. — Fri, 19 Feb 2016 08:11:20 -0500

Divisiveness, Exponential dis-trust in Government, Absolute and total disregard for the American People and there Voices......I could go on and on but there's a start!

Response by SSG Charles Holleran made Feb 20 at 2016 4:00 AM

SSG Charles Holleran — Sat, 20 Feb 2016 04:00:31 -0500

I think that he is very arrogant in that we care about what he leaves as his legacy

Response by MAJ Private RallyPoint Member made Feb 24 at 2016 4:18 PM

MAJ Private RallyPoint Member — Wed, 24 Feb 2016 16:18:21 -0500

Obama's bogus Nobel Peace Prize will NEVER compare favorably to GEN George C. Marshall, VMI Class of 1901. Army Chief of Staff, WWII AND author of Marshall Plan, as Secretary of State. I doubt if he ever violated rules for handling classified, and never lied.