Quote:
Originally Posted by Tyrone Slothrop
And Obama is only going to look better and better.
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I don't think anyone after Bill Clinton is going to look good. Obama will look better than Bush II, no doubt about that at all. But these last 36 years have been:
- Reagan borrows and spends way to temporary "prosperity."
- Bush I presides over hangover following economic sugar high of Reagan Presidency.
- Clinton lucks out with tech boom and balances budget
- Bush II walks into collapse of tech bubble and "cures" it with residential r/e bubble (historically, the bubble of last resort in decaying societies)
- Bush II puts $3 trillion war on govt credit card, off-balance-sheet (totally fucking up the middle east and goodwill accrued by the US post 9/11, permanently damaging our credibility on the world stage)
- Bush II/Greenspan housing bubble predictably blows up in everyone's faces, causing Great Recession (really, more of a depression for some, recession for others)
- Bush II presides over bank bailout, throwing moral hazard out the window and clearing up any confusion over whether we live in a "socialism for the rich and powerful, austerity for the rest" society
- Obama inherits worst conditions of any President since FDR, keeps steady hand on economy and avoids catastrophe
- Obama decides to implement national health care reform, but is forced to compromise on ACA, which is deeply flawed but serves as foot-in-the-door for eventual single payer system (if a D succeeds him)
- Obama tries to undo damage in the middle east, but it's beyond cure, and worsens, with emergence of Daesh, etc.
- Obama's following of "conventional economists" in using monetary policy and trickle down economics to fix economy not only fails but exacerbates untenable wealth disparity occurring as a result of tech and offshoring
- Brexit ushers in period of Balkanization
- Trump runs on nationalist platform which appears likely to initiate trade wars
- Frexit? Italexit? New cold war with Putin?
Obama, Clinton, and Bush I look like steady hands. I think they'll be recalled fondly. But none did anything truly impressive to change an otherwise ragged and declining trajectory of the nation. In some circles, this is quiet heroism. I happen to reside in those circles, and think Obama did a far more important job than history will ever acknowledge.
But holding the fort down in crisis as he did involved a tremendous amount of pragmatic thinking, and pragmatism won't put anyone at the top of the list of best Presidents. I think Obama will be recalled as the adult to cleaned up the absolute disaster of the Bush II Presidency, which will go down in history as the very worst of the last 100 years.
