Written by: Von Kennedy

Barack Obama has now been president of the United States for five years. As all presidents are once they are out of office, he will be ranked on the hierarchy of his successful plans and also his failures. Yet living through his presidency, does America think he has been up to par or substandard?

One thing that cannot be argued is that President Obama is the coolest man ever to step foot inside the oval office. His smooth demeanor, warm smile, comforting voice and candid sense of humor has entertained and soothed Americans in times of terror.

He is not the first president to use the latest technologies of his era to become closer to his constituents, but he is the first to galvanize the nation through them.

Back when Calvin Coolidge addressed many via radio and Harry Truman spoke to Americans in their living rooms, no one could have fathomed that technology would be used for electoral purposes.

Barack Obama changed that.

He went from a relative unknown by most Americans to the center of attention because of his use of Twitter, Facebook and other social outlets to get himself and his policies, messages and commercials into the public eye.

Not many of us remember that he was the Keynote Speaker at the 2004 Democratic National Convention announcing the presidential nomination of John Kerry, but we do remember his voice and slogans plastered on our friends’ and family’s “walls” on Facebook during the 2008 primary and presidential elections.

This increased his popularity exponentially and thrust him to become the “people’s president” once he was elected. In order to keep that image, he still regularly tweets and appears on television talk shows showing himself as personable and relatable to the people.

Some of his successes, in my eyes, are controversial yet in some ways have helped the nation grow quickly from the brink of depression.

The 2009 Recovery and Reinvestment Act, better known as the “Stimulus Package,” allowed Americans a sense of relief from the world economic downturn. Obama used this plan to promote spending and growth in our country, even though most Americans just paid off bills with their government funds. It also expanded unemployment benefits to people that were out of work and actively seeking employment and also expanded social welfare programs.

The plan, though controversial, was one of the few plans in the world implemented to help people cope with their everyday struggle for the return of normalcy.
Also, let us not forget the storming of Osama bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. We all know the outcome of that.

President Obama has also been the subject of scrutiny on other issues.

Most of us have never heard of Operation: “Fast and Furious”, drones, Edward Snowden, or wondered why Libyan and Syrian intervention during their civil wars were crucial to our national security, but our children will in 20 years when Obama’s presidency has been critiqued and ranked by a consensus of historians.

Obama is proven to be a media darling who thinks and acts now for the people, yet by others he is seen as the leader of a circus internationally and domestically. How will you remember his presidency?