Thank You, President Obama
My personal thank you to the President for helping shape my perspective on people, politics, and so much more.
Flashback to 2007. I was only nineteen years of age, without a job and I wasn’t attending college. I had dropped out in the Fall of 2006 after just one week. At this time, I had a crazy dream of becoming a professional poker player. My friends and I played all of the time and I was consumed by it. It was my passion.
My plan wasn’t going so well. By the Fall semester, I was back in school, this time at a community college. As I returned, the Presidential election had begun. Primary season was underway and the Democratic race was a three person race between John Edwards, Hillary Clinton, and Barack Obama. Early on, I had no clear favorite. I was a young kid and although I had a fascination with politics since the 2000 election, I wasn’t paying close attention.
When Barack Obama won the nomination, I really took interest. I needed to know everything about him and I could tell right away he was a once in a lifetime politician. I still remember the 2008 campaign quite vividly. Mostly, I remember seeing McCain rallies where people said a lot of downright evil things about the future President. They called him a terrorist, a secret Muslim, and claimed he wasn’t even born in America.
When the Reverend Wright controversy broke, Obama decided to get out in front of the issue and delivered a remarkable speech on race. He virtually ended that scandal before it got out of control. It was here where I realized just how great he was at communicating with the American people. John McCain had no chance to win the election.
On November 4th, 2008, I proudly cast my first ever vote for the first African-American President. I remember being in a Buffalo Wild Wings that night watching election results and everybody cheering once he was announced as the next President of the United States.
The day of the inauguration was the first day of the Spring semester at my community college. The broadcast was playing in the lobby of school. I sat there and watched with dozens of other strangers, many with tears in their eyes. I saw firsthand how important and powerful this moment was. I was moved not only by his speech but by the people around me who had hope for once. Remember at this time, people were losing jobs and their houses. Obama restored optimism among Americans.
The Democrats controlled congress and the white house the first two years of Obama’s Presidency and they made the best of it. They passed the Recovery Act, the Affordable Care Act, the auto bailout, and Dodd-Frank financial regulation. With the economy in free fall, the President had to act quick and he did. We saw the loss of jobs begin to slow shortly after the stimulus bill was passed and started our long road to recovery.
President Obama choosing to tackle health care was a big fucking deal as Joe Biden would like to say. Many Presidents before him tried to reform our health care system unsuccessfully but he went for it anyways. He managed to get it done. We can argue the effectiveness of the law but there are a couple indisputable facts. The uninsured rate is half of what it was before the ACA and costs have slowed since the bill went into effect.
Over the next couple years, the economy continued to improve and we also managed to kill Osama Bin Laden. These events led to a re-election victory over Mitt Romney in 2012. The Romney team was confident they would unseat the President but Obama is a rockstar when it comes to politics. He wasn’t going to lose until he finished implementing his agenda.
During his second term, we saw plenty more accomplishments. The unemployment rate fell to below 5%. Wages are finally growing for the middle class. We locked in a climate deal with hundreds of other countries to cut back on emissions to help protect our environment. We prevented Iran from getting nuclear weapons for years to come. Gay couples were granted the right to marry across the country. The President raised minimum wage for federal workers and changed overtime rules to give lower income salary workers a raise.
For myself, it goes beyond accomplishments when I look at the Obama Presidency. I admired the way the President stayed calm in the toughest of times and always takes his time to respond carefully and intelligently. He may be the most intelligent President this country has ever seen. He knows every issue in and out and always has well thought out responses to any type of question you throw at him.
Just recently, he wrote a 55 page journal article in the Harvard Law Review on enacting criminal justice reform. Then followed it up by writing an article on climate change in a science journal. The man is smart.
Another admirable trait of President Obama was the way he raised his children and treated his wife. Their family is just awesome and you can really feel the love they have between them all. I think everyone can look up to them and say, “I want that”.
What I take away most from Barack Obama’s Presidency is his approach to politics. Politics is people. We need to relate public policy to the single mom, the college student, the veteran, the retired auto worker. He managed to touch every segment of the population in some way. It’s why we have seen his public approval ratings skyrocket as we close in on his final days.
My favorite moment that defined the President Obama in my eyes was in 2015 at the funeral of South Carolina State Senator Clementa Pinckney after the Charleston church shooting. He delivered a wonderful eulogy and capped it with the singing of “Amazing Grace”. The moment where he begins to sing sends chills throughout my body every time I watch. It’s such a powerful moment that really captures the President’s ability to rise to the occasion under any circumstances.
Over the last eight years, I have learned a lot from the President. He has made me think about every kind of issue and helped me develop my vision for our country. I believe America is about allowing every person an opportunity to succeed no matter your background. We should be an accepting and inclusive society and Barack Obama has helped moved that ball forward a long way.
I went from college dropout in 2007 to having a Master’s degree in Economics as of last year. I’d be lying if I said the President didn’t provide some motivation for me in completing school and pursuing my hopes and dreams as he did. Aside from that, he’s helped me think outside the box on issues of civil rights, immigration, and criminal justice.
I want to personally thank President Barack Obama for eight wonderful years. You were my first and second Presidential vote and I will never regret it. I am confident in saying that you will be the best President I experience in my lifetime.
I’ll end with my favorite moment of the President’s time here. His fist-bump with Michelle the night he was elected in 2008.
