One way many people like to use to determine if a president is successful is whether or not they are better off now than before the president took office. Now, this isn’t the best, most scientific way to do this. For starters, many of the economic ramifications of a president are not felt until years after they leave office. After all, NAFTA did not truly begin affecting the United States in a negative way until George W. Bush took office.
The same is true with several housing acts signed in by Clinton, which in turn helped create the housing bubble (his legislation required banks to give loans to people who would not qualify for these loans previously…although the banks did create subprime loans, so the fault is equally on them for creating the housing crisis as well).
So is judging President Obama simply based on if the world is better or worse off now than previously fair? Well yes and no.
For starters, the Obama administration created ISIS. Yes, the U.S. was already in Iraq before he took office. But he withdrew nearly all American forces far too quickly. For anyone who has any knowledge on the Middle East, this is an area of the world accustomed to dictatorship. When you remove one, a vacuum of power is created until someone, often worse, fills it.
Watch this video clip to find out all of the other things Obama did while in office that changed our lives forever.
