President Barack Obama will leave behind a legacy tethered to health care reform, the stimulation of a floundering economy, war abroad and race in America.
“President Barack Obama will hold a unique place in history as the first African-American president. He showed how an African-American could govern a complex democracy without regard to religion, race, age, country of origin or sexual orientation,” said Toni-Michelle C. Travis, a George Mason University political science professor who studies racial/gender dimensions in elections.
His administration was free of scandal, and his devotion to his family provided a model for children and projected a positive image of the African-American family, she said.
Health care
Travis believes that Obama’s signature legislation, the Affordable Care Act, will be considered as important as Social Security.
“The Affordable Care Act was an attempt to do a step forward. That’s a big positive,” said Gerald Hanweck, associate dean for graduate programs and a professor of finance at George Mason.
“Arguably no piece of the Obama legacy has been or remains more contentious than health care reform, said Len Nichols, professor of health policy at Mason and director of the Center for Health Policy Research and Ethics.
“Partly this is due to legitimate policy differences about how to expand insurance coverage and reduce cost growth over time, but most of the emotion flows from profoundly different views of the proper role of government,” Nichols said.
Relationship with Cuba
“It is one of the key aspects of Obama’s legacy that he was the first U.S. president to have the courage to change a policy that has been ineffective, and indeed, counterproductive, for decades,” Jeremy Mayer, a professor in Mason’s Schar School of Policy and Government, said about Obama’s work to improve U.S. relations with Cuba.
The policy of attempting to completely isolate Cuba has been a bipartisan failure for decades, Mayer said; instead of isolating Cuba, the United States found itself isolated in its Cuba policy.
Obama’s accomplishments with Cuba aren’t as noteworthy as President Richard Nixon going to China in the 1970s, as Cuba is far less significant geostrategically than China.
“But,” Mayer said, “opening to Cuba had larger domestic risks than opening to China.”
Relationship with Iran
The Obama Administration's strong push for an international nuclear accord with Iran is similar to previous efforts by American presidents to improve relations with hitherto unfriendly states, such as Nixon’s rapprochements with both China and the Soviet Union, said Mark Katz, a professor of government and politics in Mason’s Schar School of Public Policy.
“The Iranian nuclear accord did not actually result in much improvement in Iranian-American relations,” Katz said. Although many in the incoming Trump Administration—including Trump himself—have criticized the agreement, it is not clear that they will, or even can, scrap it, Katz said.
Economics
Back on the home front, the Great Recession played a defining role in the Obama presidency.
“In terms of economics, I think his grade is a passing one; it's probably a ‘C’ because the job stimulation that he had was really not very much,” Hanweck said.
Overwhelmed by the housing crisis and a fragile economy when he came into office in 2008, Obama stabilized the economic system so well that he is leaving office with less than a 5 percent unemployment rate, Travis said.
Gerald A. Hanweck is the associate dean for graduate programs and a professor of finance in Mason’s School of Business. His research interests include economic stabilization and monetary policy, financial institutions and markets performance, and financial markets and their relation to public policy. He can be reached at ghanweck@gmu.edu and 703-993-1855.
Len Nichols is a professor of health policy and the director of the Center for Health Policy Research and Ethics, and he is an expert on insurance coverage expansion, cost growth reductions and the myriad responses to policy by private sector stakeholders in the health care system. He can be reached at 703-993-9490 or lnichol9@gmu.edu.
Toni-Michelle C. Travis is a George Mason University political science professor who studies racial/gender dimensions in elections. The former fellow of Oxford University’s Rothermere American Institute has served as a political analyst and examined the American constructions of race, gender, social class and sexual orientation. She can be reached at ttravis@gmu.edu or 703-993-1453.
Jeremy Mayer is a professor in the Schar School of Policy and Government. He teaches American foreign policy, media politics and policies, national policy systems, introduction to public policy and statistics. He can be reached at jmayer4@gmu.edu or 703-993-8223.
Mark N. Katz is a professor of government and politics in the Schar School of Policy and Government. He’s written about American foreign policy, Russian foreign policy and the international relations of the Middle Eat. He can be reached at mkatz@gmu.edu or 703-993-993-1420.
For more information, contact Jamie Rogers at 703-993-5118 or jroger20@gmu.edu.
About George Mason
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