
Ask HN: What are the top 3 accomplishments of Obama Administration? - gamechangr
I was asked by a foreigner (or I should say aggressively questioned) and I wasn&#x27;t as concise I would want to be. I thought I would reach out and see what others think? Thanks
======
lend000
\- Record number of commutations for nonviolent drug offenders and now Chelsea
Manning, as well.

Granted, it's all symbolism, as his administration has prosecuted far more
than he's released for those same 'crimes' and done nothing to improve the
system, but at least it improves the dialogue going forward, potentially. I
will be impressed if he also pardons Snowden, who exposed _him_ (as opposed to
Manning who leaked Bush administration secrets).

\- Shifted a significant amount of land from the poorly managed BLM to the
Forests Service.

Again, not actually solving any problems, as the BLM still owns roughly a
third of the land in the country, but he did some symbolic improvements which
benefit his image.

\- Providing a strong voice for the large strides made for the LGBT community
during his administration.

Again, he opposed gay marriage during his 08 run but slowly came around and
ended up warming up to it sooner than others. He certainly was not "the
reason" progress was made, but I'm at a lack of other accomplishments.

Some additional ones: \- Balancing the budget. \- Getting us out of imperial
interventions in the Middle East. \- Reigning in the surveillance state. \-
Promoting healthy interest rates instead of kicking the can down the road and
encouraging debt. \- Fixing the healthcare system.

Those ones were jokes, obviously. Obama has been a pretty awful President
where it matters, competing with the Bushes, FDR, and Woodrow Wilson for the
title of worst since 1900. The only things the President really has absolute
control over are foreign policy, management of non-legislated decisions such
as DEA drug scheduling/prioritizing and surveillance programs, and military
execution (see: Pentagon audit 2016). On all of these fronts he is an absolute
failure who has desecrated our Constitution and hands over the keys to the
most powerful Presidency in US history to Donald Trump. But damn, did he look
good doing it. Charisma > results, Obama 2020.

~~~
DrScump

      the poorly managed BLM to the Forests Service
    

which is still run by Obama appointees, just like Interior departments.

One change that Obama _could_ have made at the beginning (or anytime since)
would have been to move Forestry into the same Cabinet post as the National
Park Service and BLM. But, no.

------
slater
\- Healthcare

\- Sorta-kinda ending Iraq/Afghanistan wars (cue can of worms)

\- LGBTQ issues such as repeal of DADT, marriage equality, etc.

~~~
mtgx
Not sure how much the Iraq war ended, when last year they bombed it as much as
they bombed Syria, and they were actually trying to wipe out ISIS in Syria (or
was it Assad? I lost count on which side the U.S. was there) after the attacks
in Paris and whatnot. So that tells you a lot about just how active the US
military is in Iraq.

You can't say you "ended" a war where you're still dropping 1,000 bombs a
month in a country, or more than 30 every day. Imagine 30 bombs being dropped
every day in the U.S. by another nation. Would you feel "not at war" with that
country? And the U.S. is a huge place with the population spread around. The
Middle Eastern countries are much smaller so the impact (both physical
destruction-wise, but also psychological to the population) is greater.

[http://blogs.cfr.org/zenko/2017/01/05/bombs-dropped-
in-2016/](http://blogs.cfr.org/zenko/2017/01/05/bombs-dropped-in-2016/)

~~~
slater
Hence "sorta-kinda" and "can of worms" ;)

