'Tis the season for presidential elections! As the year comes to an end, trending all over the news, social media, magazines etc, you're bound to see Donald Trump talking about how sexy his own daughter is, Hilary Clinton missing some emails and Bernie Sanders being our generations knight in shining armor.
We are so intertwined with these news headings and scandals that we forget what will be the bigger issue for 2016… NO MORE BARACK OBAMA!
Some may disagree but many would say that January 20th 2009 was a day when America had finally moved twenty steps forward instead of ten steps back. I even remember having attending a school wide assembly to watch the inauguration that would go down in history. Although there’s still much going on in America and having a black president seemed like the end of all evils, it wasn’t much of a milestone as one would like to think. Nonetheless our current POTUS will truly be missed after officially leaving office.
To many, it may not feel like it but while president, Barack Obama had accomplished quite a bit and, along with the help of others in congress, has definitely cleaned up a lot of the mess former president George W. Bush left behind. Although there have been many times where Obama was looked at as a horrible president due to several setbacks of Congress, Obama has set the bar pretty high for post leaders of America. Within his first week as president, Obama committed to signing an Executive Order that helped to combat government waste and reduce unnecessary spending costs. Barack didn’t waste any time getting things done once sworn into office.
I’m sure America remembers the “Bush-led recession” that was costing the economy about 80,000 jobs by the time Obama came to office. It took some time but Barack Obama was able to prevent a post Bush great depression and improve the economy by passing the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, also known as “The Stimulus Package.” This helped create and sustain up to 2.1 millions jobs and stimulated the economy by 3.5%, all during his first year in office. Throughout his presidency, Barack Obama created more jobs in 2010 than George W. Bush did in eight years. Not to mention, successfully capturing terrorist leaders such as Osama Bin Laden, Ahmed Abu Khattala of the Benghazi attacks, and Al Qaeda AQAP leader Anwar al-Awlaki - just to name a few - all while under the Obama administration.
Obama has accomplished so much but one aspect that will indeed be missed was his “openness” to America. As president, Barack Obama has made humorous appearances on television such as SNL, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Jimmy Kimmel Live and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. One cannot forget when he administered a speech during the 2015 White House Correspondents Dinner accompanied by an anger translator.
In addition to that, he also delivered a serious message during the 2015 GRAMMY Awards where he briefly acknowledged artists and their impacts on pop culture but went right into helping end violence against women by encouraging viewers to take a pledge on ItsOnUs.org.
Unlike previous FLOTUS’s, Michelle Obama has took it upon herself to be a very active figure while in the White House. Mrs. Obama is a strong advocate for education, fitness and health, women’s rights and the positive growth of children, especially minorities. She has spoken at countless events such as a recent one at the Apollo Theater where she joined the “Let Girls Learn” Global Conversation and gave some extempore advice to the crowd about not being afraid to excel academically as a female. She was also the first FLOTUS to appear on BET’s ‘Black Girls Rock’ and give voice to a motivational speech that left many in standing ovation and us black girls of today feeling empowered.
We truly see how much time has passed these two terms as we watch Sasha Obama transform into a beautiful young lady and Malia Obama on her journey of choosing the college of her choice. Of course, Barack Obama was not a perfect president. There was a lot of pressure on this man to use one term to clean up what Bush had left for America for a prolonged eight years, which is extremely unfair but this is how much of a savior Obama was initially looked at as.
There was much he had accomplished during his presidency while at the same time, allowing us citizens of America to get a more personal feel of him and his family, which, in my opinion, boosted his status even more so. Obama will genuinely be missed in office and we can only hope that the next president can live up to his determination, laid back domineer and likableness while in office.
