How will we remember the 44th president? How does our nation picture his legacy as it stands right now? Too soon to judge, certainly, because the far-reaching effects of many policies might not show their face for any number of years.

Are things better than they were in 2008, when the economy was a complete and utter disaster? Yes, yes it is.

So let’s take a stroll down memory lane on some, not all, of the policies that President Obama has pushed through, enacted, signed, etc. (courtesy of: What the fuck has Obama done so far?)

- 16.64 million previously uninsured individuals now have insurance under the Affordable Care Act. - He nearly doubled the amount of land in the national park system, besting Teddy Roosevelt. - “Signed the Children’s Health Insurance Reauthorization Act, which provides health care to 11 million kids –– 4 million of whom were previously uninsured.” - “Tax cuts for up to 3.5 million small businesses to help pay for employee health care coverage.” - “Cut prescription drug cost for Medicare recipients by 50%” - “Health Care Reform Bill, preventing insurance companies from denying insurance because of a pre-existing condition.” - “Provided the Department of Veterans Affairs with more than $1.4 billion to improve services to America’s Veterans.” - “Issued executive order to repeal Bush era restrictions of federal funding for embryonic stem cell research.” - “Reversed ‘global gag rule’, allowing US aid to go to organization regardless of whether they provide abortions.”

- “Extended benefits to same-sex partners of federal employees” - “Appointed more openly gay officials than any other president in US history.” - “Appointed first Latina to the US Supreme Court.” - “First president to endorse same-sex marriage equality.” - “Signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act restoring basic protection against pay discrimination for women and other workers.” - “Expanded hate crime law in the US to include sexual orientation through the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act.”

- “Signed financial reform law allowing shareholders of publicly traded companies to vote on executive pay.” - “The American Recovery & Reinvestment Act of 2009: a $789 billion economic stimulus plan.” - “Created more private sector jobs in 2010 than during entire Bush years.” - “Eliminated subsidies to private lending middlemen of student loans and protect student borrowers.” - “Established Credit Card Bill of Rights preventing credit card companies from imposing arbitrary rate increases on customers.” - “Signed financial reform law requiring lenders to verify applicants’ credit history, income, and employment status.”

- “Signed the Weapons Systems Acquisitions Reform Act to stop fraud and Wasteful spending in the defense procurement and contracting system.” - “Reversed the policy of barring media coverage during the return of fallen soldiers to Dover Air Force Base” - “Signed New Start Treaty – a nuclear arms reduction pact with Russia” - “Signed the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, giving the FDA the authority to regulate the manufacturing, marketing, and sale of tobacco for the first time.”

As President Obama mentioned in his speech, he also killed Osama Bin Laden. Just got to make sure everyone remembers that!

We killed one guy, and he was a mastermind. Now he’s dead. Remember, we killed him? He hated us for our freedoms. He attacked us, but now he’s dead. And because he’s dead, there aren’t anymore global terrorist organizations. Wait, where? Syria, Iraq, Turkey, Egypt, Somalia, France… Well, how did that happen? We got THE guy. We got the ONE guy. Where did all these other guys come from? Well, all right, let’s just send in a few more drones. How many more? Send in a drone. Yeah, yeah, we’ve got money for that. What’s that general? Just send in a drone, trust me. Well, whoever this new guy is, we’ll get him too. Promise. A new guy? Dang Nabbit. Well, I don’t know, send in a couple of drones.

Yes, the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, albeit potentially a bit prematurely, or merely as a global statement of honor in a way for the US of A, in recognition for electing its first Black president, has, most definitely, also been a war president. And that’s okay, no, really, that’s okay. I’m certain that he would have liked to have been a peace president and lived up to that fucking Nobel Prize, but the circumstances dictated otherwise. There’s a war on terror going on, and we have to engage militarily in all of these different countries and cities, because we MUST protect American interests, at all cost, with little to no regard for collateral damage (i.e., human lives). We cannot be seen as weak. We must stay engaged.

We must… continue the failed policies of Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld, because we are not capable of coming up with an alternative to war, because we listen to our military advisers who, if we’re not at war, are fucking bored. So, I mean, we’re paying them all this money, we might as well have them do what we’re paying ‘em to do.

The list speaks for itself. At many turns, President Obama has fought for the poor, the disadvantaged, the disabled, the LGBTQ community, the consumer, women, veterans, the economy, science, and the environment. Whether or not you agree that fighting for or against these things is inherently good or bad is up to you, but he fought for them. Through an obstructionist Republican house and senate, for a majority of his two terms, President Obama wheeled and hedged and compromised, and, in the end, he fought for the people.

But, Guantanamo is still open, the wars on-going despite his best efforts, the completely ridiculous, failed war on drugs lives on, NSA data mining practices to continue, has yet to pardon Edward Snowden, and only has two months left to publicly beat the shit out of that heartless demon known as Dick Cheney.

Just so we’re clear: the war on terror is unwinnable. The war on drugs is unwinnable. Guantanamo represents the darkest side of humanity. Data mining should make you want to vomit. Snowden did a good thing. Dick Cheney deserves a public ass whipping.

I have a feeling that in the end, however, slightly less than half of the country will judge president Obama not based on his accomplishments and failures alone, but something else entirely, judging him, perhaps, on completely different criteria all along.

President Obama ends his speech with a rousing bit. “Equality is on the ballot,” he says, Tolerance is on the ballot, jobs, our democracy is on the ballot… Hillary Clinton is on the ballot; Patrick Murphy is on the ballot. God Bless.” And the crowd goes wild.

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