"Trump supporters say, 'We suffered 8 years under Barack Obama.'
The day Obama took office, the Dow closed at 7,949 points. Eight years later, the Dow had almost tripled.
General Motors and Chrysler were on the brink of bankruptcy, with Ford not far behind, and their failure, along with their supply chains, would have meant the loss of millions of jobs. Obama pushed through a controversial, $80 billion bailout to save the car industry. The U.S. car industry survived, started making money again, and the entire $80 billion was paid back, with interest.
While we remain vulnerable to lone-wolf attacks, no foreign terrorist organization has successfully executed a mass attack here since 9/11.
Obama ordered the raid that killed Osama Bin Laden.
He drew down the number of troops from 180,000 in Iraq and Afghanistan to just 15,000, and increased funding for the Department of Veterans Affairs.
He launched a program called Opening Doors which, since 2010, has led to a 47 percent decline in the number of homeless veterans.
He set a record 73 straight months of private-sector job growth.
Due to Obama’s regulatory policies, greenhouse gas emissions decreased by 12%, production of renewable energy more than doubled, and our dependence on foreign oil was cut in half.
He signed The Lilly Ledbetter Act, making it easier for women to sue employers for unequal pay.
His Omnibus Public Lands Management Act designated more than 2 million acres as wilderness, creating thousands of miles of trails and protecting over 1,000 miles of rivers.
He reduced the federal deficit from 9.8 percent of GDP in 2009 to 3.2 percent in 2016.
For all the inadequacies of the Affordable Care Act, we seem to have forgotten that, before the ACA, you could be denied coverage for a pre-existing condition and kids could not stay on their parents’ policies up to age 26.
Obama approved a $14.5 billion system to rebuild the levees in New Orleans.
All this, when Mitch McConnell famously asserted that his singular mission would be to block anything President Obama tried to do.
While Obama failed on his campaign pledge to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay, that prison’s population decreased from 242 to around 50.
He expanded funding for embryonic stem cell research, supporting ground breaking advancement in areas like spinal injury treatment and cancer.
Credit card companies can no longer charge hidden fees or raise interest rates without advance notice.
Most years, Obama threw a 4th of July party for military families. He held babies, played games with children, and served up barbecue.
Welfare spending went down: for every 100 poor families, just 24 receive cash assistance, compared with 64 in 1996.
Obama comforted families and communities following more than a dozen mass shootings.
He was the first president since Eisenhower to serve two terms without personal or political scandal.
He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
President Obama was not perfect, as no man and no president is, and you can certainly disagree with his political ideologies. But to say the USA suffered?
If that’s the argument, if this is how we suffered for 8 years under Barack Obama, I have one wish:  may we be so fortunate as to suffer 8 more."

This is a synthesised list from gpt,grok and claude

OBAMA PRESIDENCY — KEY CRITICISMS SYNTHESISED

Here's a balanced list of the most significant criticisms of the Obama presidency, drawing from both left and right perspectives:
Foreign Policy & Military

The withdrawal from Iraq created a power vacuum that directly enabled the rise of ISIS, which seized large parts of Iraq and Syria
The Libya intervention toppled Gaddafi but left the country in a failed state of chaos and civil war that continues today
Drone strike programme expanded massively — killed thousands including significant civilian casualties, operating in countries the US was not officially at war with
The Syrian red line — Obama drew a public red line on chemical weapons use, Assad crossed it, and Obama backed down — widely seen as a major credibility collapse
Guantanamo Bay remained open despite a specific and prominent campaign promise to close it

Domestic Policy

The Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) — supporters see it as a landmark achievement but critics note it fell far short of universal coverage, was implemented chaotically, and the "you can keep your doctor" promise proved false for millions
The 2009 stimulus package was criticised by economists on both sides — too small according to Keynesians, too large and ineffective according to fiscal conservatives
Recovery from the 2008 financial crisis was the slowest post-recession recovery since World War II
Wall Street bankers responsible for the financial crisis were largely not prosecuted — a significant criticism from the left
Record deportations — Obama deported more people than any previous president, earning the nickname "Deporter in Chief" from immigration advocates

Civil Liberties

NSA mass surveillance programme exposed by Edward Snowden revealed the government was collecting data on virtually all Americans — Obama defended it
More journalists and whistleblowers prosecuted under the Espionage Act than all previous presidents combined
Continued and expanded many Bush-era surveillance and detention policies he had criticised as a senator

Race Relations

Despite being the first Black president, race relations arguably deteriorated during his tenure — the Ferguson unrest, rise of Black Lives Matter, and a series of high-profile police killings of Black Americans defined his second term
Critics from the left argued he was too cautious and insufficiently vocal on structural racism

Political Legacy

Democrats lost over 1,000 state and local legislative seats during his presidency — the party was significantly weakened at the state level
His style of governance was criticised as overly technocratic and disconnected from working-class voters, arguably contributing to the conditions that led to Trump's 2016 victory
The use of executive orders to bypass Congress — critics argued this set problematic precedents regardless of the policy merit

The broader honest assessment
Many of these criticisms are genuinely contested — some represent policy disagreements rather than failures, and several inherited impossible situations. But the list above represents the most substantive and recurring criticisms from serious analysts across the political spectrum rather than purely partisan attacks.

Gordon wrote on Apr 9^th, 2026 at 6:39pm:


The list above represents the most substantive and recurring criticisms you got off Grok, you silly old thing.

Are you a Grokophile?

Big Donger wrote on Apr 9^th, 2026 at 7:03pm:


Quote:


They were never going to be able to pass universal coverage so while the critisism is correct it is still better to take smaller steps in the right direction than to achieve nothing. As is The Affordable Care Act represents a huge improvment.

Gordon wrote on Apr 9^th, 2026 at 7:25pm:


Don't want to say, is it?

What's the matter, Gordon, cat got your tongue?