The Stream

Barack Obama’s legacy

Looking back on the outgoing US president’s eight years in office.

Expectations were high when Barack Obama won the US presidency eight years ago. He pledged “Hope and Change” to a country concerned about an economic crisis at home and costly wars abroad. With his stirring rhetoric and inspiring personal story, the son of a Kenyan man and American woman, raised by his grandmother, Obama mobilized an unprecedented grassroots campaign to win more votes than any of his predecessors. Many hoped his history-making election as the nation’s first African-American president would be a turning point after centuries of pervasive racism. With just a month before he leaves office, how will history remember Barack Obama’s tenure?  In part one of our conversation on Obama’s legacy, we discuss his domestic record.

On this episode of The Stream, we’ll speak to:

Mychal Denzel Smith @mychalsmith
Author, “Invisible Man, Got the Whole World Watching

Michael Days @mikedays
Author, “Obama’s Legacy: What He Accomplished As President

Sarah Jaffe @sarahljaffe
Author, “Necessary Trouble

Trevor Thrall @Trevor_Thrall
Senior fellow, Cato Institute’s Defense and Foreign Policy Department
cato.org

Karen Attiah @KarenAttiah
Global Opinions editor, The Washington Post
washingtonpost.com

Vijay Prashad @vijayprashad
Professor of International Studies, Trinity College
vijayprashad.org

What do you think? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.