A Consequential President: The Legacy of Barack Obama

I picked this book up during the first 100 days of Donald Trump's presidency, simply to try to remember ​how Obama's first few months compared to Trump​'s. ​Since Trump's innaguration, ​I can't remember one day when the lead story in the news was something other than news about President Trump - some signing statement, some new proclimation, or some new controversy. I just couldn't remember Obama being covered so completely at the same point in his presidency, and wanted to see if that was because of my faulty memory, or a true reflection of ​how Obama was covered by the media during ​his early term.

​The author, Michael ​D'Antonio doesn't try to make a comparison of each President's earl​iest days, but he does remind show more readers that both men were busy, each clearly with a different focus. Few of us will need to be reminded that on the Home front, Obama's initial focus was on trying to prevent the Country from going into a full recession and to turn the economic downturn around. ​Like Trump, another early ​Obama ​focus was on Health Care, ​trying to implement universal affordable health care insurance for Americans, ​trying to ​prevent individuals with significant health issues from being dropped by their insurer, and allowing young adults to remain on their parent's policies​ until they were 26. ​Following passage of the Affordable Health Care Act (ObamaCare), Obama turned his attention on environmental issues​. While he took steps to try to protect rivers and streams from pollution, and to prevent pollutants being discharged into the air, his signature accomplishment (as seen by his supporters) was his leadership and negotiations with major industrial nations to complete an agreement by virtually every Nation in the world to set goals to reduce carbon discharges into the atmosphere to limit ​the impacts of man-made ​climate change in the future.

On the international stage, I ​would have expected M​r. D'Antonio​to would have highlighted ​the Obama Administration's finding and killing of Osama Bin Laden as a foreign policy accomplishment​, but I don't remember that being addressed. The author did address other uses of armed forces under Obama though. Obama ​tried to de-emphasize America's involvement in foreign wars, substituting use of armed drones to take out key terrorist leaders vs. more troops on the ground. He also tried ​encouraging ​NATO ​nations and/or foreign leaders in war zones ​to take a more active role in their own affairs. However, as the ​current ​state of affairs in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Libya, Nigeria, Somalia, etc. point out, finding suitable partners to ​provide effective fighting forces to defeat terrorist forces has been a difficult task. ​

​Also on international matters, Obama did break down ​the ​isolation barriers with Cuba, and along with other major Nations, negotiated a deal with Iran to stop uranium enrichment programs and progress toward nuclear weapons proliferation.​ ​He also worked to shift American interests toward the Pacific region and negotiate Pacific oriented Trade agreements, but these may ​not be lasting achievements going forward under the current Administration.

All in all, the author provided a good review of the more significant accomplishments achieved by the Obama Administration. Supporters​ will​ have their opinion, and opponents theirs, ​but ​only history will tell whether these Obama domestic and foreign policy accomplishments will be enduring or short-lived, beneficial or folly. show less

Michael D'Antonio's A Conseqiential President: The Legacy of Barack Obama is a well documented summary of President Obama's two terms. This author breaks down Obama's main goals for his presidency. The topics covered are the economy, auto industry crisis, healthcare, energy sources, saving the environment, foreign policy, wage equality, gay marriage, employment discrimination and failures and or unfinished aims. I paraphrased the titles for the topics.

As you can see from the above list, his agenda was long and varied. The author says that Obama has been unappreciated and I agree. America used to be the majority of the people in the center politically speaking but now the centrists and people willing to compromise have greatly shrunk. show more The author traces the evolution of the opposition party and how their goals and tactics have changed. Now the United States is more divided politically than in a very long time. because of the The next president will need to deal with that situation.

This book is great if you believe in the changes that he was bringing and trying to bring about but I was a little disappointed in the lack of the personal side of Obama. My feeling is that he will be thought of as a great president as time passes and history puts him in perspective.

I received this Advanced Reading Copy by making a selection from Amazon Vine books but that in no way influenced my thoughts or feelings in this review. I also posted this review only on sites meant for reading not for selling. show less

I like the book. I agree with the author's description of the Obama presidency. I just think that it is way too early for a book like this. We are not even 100 days into the Trump administration. I think that we need some space and time from January 20, 2017 when Obama left office. If you are a fan of Pres. Obama, you'll probably like this book. I don't think there any surprises in here – – nothing that will change your mind for the better or worse. If you are not a fan of Pres. Obama, you may find plenty to disagree with, particularly when it comes to the listed accomplishments from 2009-2017. I am looking forward to Pres. Obama's own book about his administration.