Obama in 100 Years

     As Barack Obama enters his second term as President, us Americans can't help but wonder how he will be remembered many years from now. According to surveys taken by presidential scholars between 2008 and 2011, Abraham Lincoln is the highest ranked President in American history, followed by Franklin Roosevelt and George Washington. The top 8 Presidents on this list all have something in common: each of them were elected into office for a second term, just as President Obama recently was. Obama will serve as the 17th President to have been re-elected to two terms. As this article states, "Most of the best-regarded presidents have won...at least 90 percent of the electoral vote in their second-term bid." Obama, on the other hand, won by a closer margin, winning 62% of the electoral vote. Using the graph on the right, it can be estimated that Obama will be ranked as the 17th highest president, but of course, numbers and statistics cannot always be trusted.
    Despite much criticism, Obama has already achieved a lot in his first term, including, as The Week magazine states, "his universal health-care law...his bailouts of Wall Street and Detroit...he ended the war in Iraq, is pulling us out of Afghanistan, and has already reduced the deficit by $3 trillion over the next decade." While this is an impressive list of accomplishments, Obama's remembrance might rely more on how he handles his second term, free from the pressure of getting reelected. As this article states, presidents "are judged by whether they get a few very big decisions right or wrong." As this statement suggests by using the word "few," often times many of the decisions that a President makes, whether they be good ones or bad ones, are ignored in the long-run. Only few decisions are remembered, and those are the ones that end up shaping a President's legacy. Although it may be impossible to tell so early, how do you think Obama will be remembered? In general, how do you think Presidents are remembered?