One Year Ago Today: President Obama Won…Again!

It’s time to Break It Down!

On November 6, 2012, Barack Hussein Obama defeated Mitt Romney, beat the odds, disappointed the collective GOP-Tea Party, and marched into the record books. By holding off Romney’s challenge, the President, now at the close of his fifth year in office, fashioned and executed an improbable run back to the top by winning despite facing deeply entrenched headwinds from economic doldrums that included a full-fledged downturn characterized as the Great Recession, and an unemployment rate that, even now, has not fallen south of 7%.

The President, of course carries the distinction of having been the first African American (emphasis on American if you are a Birther…hint, hint, Mr. Trump) to win the Office. November 6, 2012 marked the end of his political office-seeking life. It is too early to pen a retrospective or define this President’s legacy, of course. He has his share of detractors. Lest we forget, despite all the naysayers, Team Obama managed to:

Conceive and formulate legislation that saved the Auto Industry
Reinvent American Banking
Stabilize and energize the Housing Market
Enact a comprehensive Stimulus Package (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009)
Oversee approval of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act
Save a Captain/spawn a movie (though not depicted in Captain Phillips)
Withdraw American troops from Iraq
Terminate Osama bin Laden
Sign an Executive Order to expand immigration
Nominate two women, including the first Latina, for the Supreme Court

While any comprehensive list of POTUS’ achievements, substantive and otherwise, is much longer than the ten items above, and I have already conceded it is too early to talk legacy, the final story is likely to be closely tied to the issue known as Obamacare. That is too bad.

I say that, not because I am down on the President’s signature domestic initiative, I am not! In point of fact, I anticipate that the horrific website rollout issues will fade into a distant memory, and the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will do what it is designed to do…ensure that millions of Americans who have previously been denied health care will get it.

That new normal, in my opinion, will stabilize Obamacare, and the program, which will always be controversial, because of its ties to President Obama, will gain traction, and increasing support. Why will it remain controversial? We must remember, a key element of this Country still opposes Social Security, Welfare, in any of its iterations, and every other safety net program ever established in America.

Every Democratic Administration since Truman’s has been infatuated with the idea of rolling out some version of a National Health Care model. Barack Obama, the man whom Dinesh D’Souza and Newt Gingrich cited for his “Kenyan anti-colonial” worldview, despite that slur, got it done. Gingrich and the GOP-Tea Party tried valiantly to prevent Barack Obama’s re-election. The former Speaker of the House, and many like him, called the President a Socialist and virtually everything but a Child of God…oh yeah, and President. Undoubtedly, November 6, 2012 was a dispiriting day for all who hold their banner, and for their special worldview. There is no denying it, “One Year ago Today: President Obama Won…Again!” Moreover, so did America.

I’m done; holla back!

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