Obama Gets Good Grades on Domestic Policy, but Not on Foreign Policy

A PRESIDENCY WHICH AROUSED GREAT EXPECTATIONS DRAWS TO A CLOSE. APPROVAL RATES HAVE REMAINED AT GOOD LEVELS, BUT SOCIAL SCIENTISTS HAVE OBJECTIONS TO RAISE

by Franco Bruni
Translated by Alex Foti


In 2013, four years and three months into his presidency, Obama got a B- in the assessment of 203 professors from 69 of the best American universities. Last year, American political scientists, questioned by the Brookings Institution think-tank, ranked Obama as 18th out of 43 US presidents. These are sobering judgments when compared to the enthusiasm raised by his first election to the White House, and approval ratings that, while variable, have mainly stayed at good levels. On the other hand, the oddities of US politics are such that 43% of Republicans believe Barack Obama is a Muslim, and many are still convinced he was born in Kenya.
 
➜ Many contradictions
Any assessment of the two Obama administrations has to sieve through many contradictions. Under America's first black president,  a person always attentive, progressive, sophisticated in matters concerning African-Americans and Latinos, the US has witnessed racial conflict increase. Politically and economically liberal, Obama has seen income inequality grow since he was chosen to lead the country. Awarded with the Nobel Peace Prize shortly after he was elected, he has seen the world becoming more dangerous in the regions where the US is engaged diplomatically and militarily. Greeted with enthusiasm all over the world when he took office, he has in fact presided over years of decline in American leadership.

Obama's best results were achieved on the domestic front, especially in economic policy. Elected in the midst of  the Great Crisis 2008-9, he adopted a very interventionist economic stance that has contributed to the recovery of growth and employment. With tremendous effort, he managed to pass health care reform, thanks to which the number of Americans uncovered by health insurance decreased by 16 million over 5 years.

Of great importance was reforming of the rules of the banking system, which is today healthier than its European counterpart. Obama renewed Bernanke's mandate as President of the Federal Reserve: as much as one can disagree on the size and duration of liquidity creation that the latter has implemented, the consensus back then made it difficult to make a different choice. Monetary policy was not however of paramount concern for Obama, who in 2014 appointed Janet Yellen to the Fed, whose record is judged by many with increasing skepticism.

As for fiscal policy, Obama presided over a sharp counter-cyclical expansion of the deficit, then partly corrected, leading to tempestuous struggles with Congress over debt ceiling, getting the country to the brink of default also due to the President's political strategy that many judged hesitant. There was perhaps too much compromise with the Republicans over eliminating the tax cuts inherited from Bush, and he could not get to tax high incomes as much as he wanted.
 
➜ Problems on two fronts
In foreign policy, judgments of Obama are harsher. He started with peacemaking ambitions on the diplomatic front, especially towards Russia, but there then have been many contradictions and uncertainties leading to criticism over his foreign record, especially over the forms taken by "disengagement" from Iraq, the outcome of the Libyan war, and the deterioration of relations with Moscow, Beijing, and Tel Aviv. However, he was recently acclaimed for diplomatic breakthroughs with Iran and Cuba.

The White House has spearheaded an intensive effort to liberalize global trade and international investment, especially through Trans-Pacific and Trans-Atlantic trade agreements with traditional allies, but success is scarce and although the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TTP) Treaty was signed, it is unlikely to be ratified by Congress, while the two candidates to succeed Obama are both opposed to both treaties.

What limited, if not spoiled, the success of such a promising presidency, and hampered the achievements of a leader so "new", whose rhetoric and personal style have never fallen short of his popular appeal? Simply put, the problems seem to have come from two sources. First, the domestic political climate of the US, made bitter and divisive by radical and populist opposition to his policies. The ongoing clash with Congress went beyond anything reasonable, although Obama seems to have done everything possible to avoid it. In the opinion of many, however, the episode revealed the limits of his political ability, so intellectually articulated to the point of making him often too dialectic, hesitant, even contradictory. This limit has especially been evident in foreign policy, but also on the domestic front his greatest obstacle was often to not be true to himself enough to make a change. It will be history and the long term that will provide the final assessment of Obama's eight years.