[CarylB]

Originally Posted by nightinr

It always makes me laugh that Brits think Obama as this fantastic US President. If he was that successful do you really think America would have voted for Trump?

From a UK perspective Obama had the audacity to say the UK would be at the "back of the queue" if we voted for Brexit. A terrible, patronising thing to say. This coupled with him removing the Churchill bust showed that he had little respect for the UK.

I've clearly explained about the bust in vain. OUR GOVERNMENT removed it. Obama had the second one brought across and put just outside the Oval Office where he passed it every day. Obama wanted the UK to stay IN the EU, hence his saying what he did ... and if you think the isolationist (who has had the audacity to say he would not hesitate to drop bombs on Europe, does not consider Russia a threat, and has already demanded Brussels abandons plans for an EU Army if it wants the US is to continue its support for Nato) is likely to be rushing to trade deals without services delivered by the public sector to come under deal .... Even the guy tipped to be Trump’s ambassador to the EU has warned Downing Street to "read The Art of the Deal if they wanted to understand how Donald Trump’s mind works. It’s very different to a political mind."

Many suspect Trump’s interest in a deal is fueled mainly by a desire to anger his political enemies in Europe. It's far from clear not clear what Britain would get out of it, given US barriers are usually at state not country level. There is also the worry that the US will insist on opening up private sector access to public services, in particular the NHS, considered by all parties as the country’s most precious asset, and getting access for their private service providers to our public services .. and this Tory government with their ever increasing privatising agenda and May's desperation because there's no way she's going to get free market on her terms, could just get chewed up and spat out in negotiations with the Trump headed administration.

Originally Posted by stretch37

That's a giant assumption.

Everybody loves to judge the shit out of Obama, or love him up to death. I think he did some good, and some bad. But his intention was ALWAYS to do good and to help everyone. I think we can agree that this is in sharp contrast to his successor.

Agreed on all counts. He inherited a country in financial crisis and has steered it into emerging recovery, despite being constantly thwarted at every turn by a Republican congress who made it clear they would block him at every turn. He had a window of about 4 months when he had enough majority to push anything through. Hence the Executive Orders .. without which he could have done nothing and think of every budget that they held to a cliff-hanger! They fought him but he achieved:
* a universal health care programme which wasn't perfect by any means, but covered 32m people
* the act to spur economic growth amid greatest recession since the Great Depression, creating a total of nearly 3.7 million new private-sector jobs.
* passed Wall Street reforms
* turned the auto industry round
* repealed "Don't ask, don't tell
* reversed Bush's torture policies
* boosted fuel efficiency standards and finalised rules to limit carbon emissions from power plants
* tightened sanctions on Iraq and negotiated the deal to block a nuclear Iran
* undertook a stealth climate policy which if Trump doesn't undo it would mean many of the dirtiest power stations would close (sadly I expect this to be culled) and pushed Federal agencies to be green leaders. He secured U.S. commitment to a Global Agreement on Climate Change (another one for the culling )
* expanded Wilderness and Watershed Protection
* cracked down on bad for-profit colleges and improved school nutrition
* expanded health care for children
* steered though recognition of same-sex marriage
* Protected LGBTQ against employment discrimination and strengthened women's rights to fair pay

These are ones I can remember .. there are many more. But I know he reduced the federal deficit from close to 10% down to just over 3% .. not quite the country gasping in its last death throes painted by Trump's inauguration speech.

AND .. he avoided any personal scandal; the first president since Dwight Eisenhower to serve two terms with no serious personal or political scandal.

I didn't like the drone bombing in Syria, but I think he chose that as the lesser of the evils he felt compelled to choose. On the other hand he forced an agreement by Assad to destroy the country’s stockpile of chemical weapons, ended combat missions in Iraq and Afghanistan, and ordered the raid that eliminated Osama bin Laden.

He is intelligent, probing, thoughtful, measured and articulate, gracious, good humoured, and stayed all these things despite a persistent level of racism towards him and his family. Both he and his wife had to put up with the kind of racist comments and slurs that appalled me, and most decent people; the kind of things I haven't heard for decades.

Above and beyond all this he had, as you say, a very real desire to do good, to help those who needed help, to afford those who were not comfortably privileged their rights to pursue happiness. He only wanted to do good, he cared about the people he was elected to serve, and I agree this is in contrast to his successor.

This legacy is under threat. Trump and the now Republican-dominated Congress have pledged to undo much of what he achieved, including repealing the Affordable Care Act and reversing important achievements on immigration and climate change. These were undertaken by executive orders and Trump has stated he will cancel every Obama executive order immediately he takes office, and indeed showily signed away the ACA within an hour or so. Meanwhile he has surrounded himself with the new swamp of climate change deniers, those with vested interests in fossil fuel, businessmen who are more interested in profit than workers' rights.

As to

If he was that successful do you really think America would have voted for Trump?

Of course the point is that millions of them didn't. The Electoral College ties in with the popular vote far less than our constituency system, and had for eg the Presidency been decided by a vote as in our referendum, he wouldn't have been elected. They are stuck with the EC, and I'm not going to argue he "lost" on the popular vote .. but 3m more people didn't vote for him, and it wasn't a run between Obama and Trump.

However, I think the above answers why this "Brit" admires Obama, and yes, thinks he was one of the best Presidents the US has had for many years, fears the new incumbent, and is extremely sad to see the one go and very concerned to see the other ensconced.

As to the