Analysis of the First term of Barack Obama as the President of United States

Abstract

Barack Obama was sworn in as the 44th President of the United States of America on 20th January, 2009. When Obama took over as the president of the country, people within and outside of America expected this to be the beginning of a new era in the American society henceforth. The affairs in the first term were very challenging but he managed to score several accomplishments. These included overcoming the opposition of the Republicans to pass an economic stimulus program, bringing changes to the US health care system, outlining new rules for Wall Street and the banking industry and rescuing the collapsing auto industry of US. Though there were many accomplishments, For Americans, the economy continues to move slowly; Guantanamo is still open; the administration has been ineffective in addressing the injustices of the criminal justice system and in making effective moves for the confrontation of the war on drugs; the world still continues to be affected by global warming; Islamophobia continues to spread; there is still wars being fought by the country at various fronts and terrorists are still in pursuit of Americans to kill them. A look at the first term of the president will help in understanding the extent to which this progressive promise that he and his administration brought was fulfilled. The paper thus analyses the performance of Obama as a progressive president during his first term

Abstract2

Introduction4

Early Life and Career of Barack Obama4

The early days of the Executive Office7

President Obama's Policies, Programs and Accomplishments8

Domestic Policy8

Health Care Reform8

Wall Street Reform9

Housing10

Promoting Worker's Rights10

Economy and Jobs11

Tax Cuts12

Manufacturing13

Other Domestic Policy Programs and Achievements13

Foreign Affairs14

The Economic Challenge16

Criticism in relation to ending Poverty18

The Midterm failure20

First-term promises made, kept and broken22

Analysis of his first term24

Conclusion29

End Notes31

Analysis of the First term of Barack Obama as the President of United States

Introduction

Barack Obama was sworn in as the 44th President of the United States of America on 20th January, 2009 after a hard-fought presidential campaign for two years. He was the first African American to take this position in the history of the country. When Obama took over as the president of the country, people within and outside of America expected this to be the beginning of a new era in the American society henceforth. A look at the first term of the president will help in understanding the extent to which this progressive promise that he and his administration brought was fulfilled. The paper thus analyses the performance of Obama as a progressive president during his first term with respect to various issues such as education, healthcare, economy, immigration, criminal justice, race relations and gender issues, Iraq and Afghanistan, and the war against terrorism.

Early Life and Career of Barack Obama

Barack Hussein Obama was born to a white mother from Kansas, Ann Dunham and Barack Obama Sr. a black Kenyan student studying in the University of Hawaii where the two met each other as students. His father left the child with her mother ...