A Consequential President: The Legacy of Barack Obama

As an answer to critics on both the left and right, journalist D'Antonio (The Truth About Trump) shows that despite determined opposition from Republicans in Congress while facing national and international financial and military crises, Barack Obama managed to be the transformative U.S. president that many hoped for when he took office in 2009. There is extensive coverage of the legislative struggle to obtain passage of the Affordable Care Act with examples of the misleading campaigns opponents in Congress and the media devised to attempt to defeat the legislation. D'Antonio explains how Obama's foreign policy breakthroughs in the Iran nuclear treaty and restoring relations with Cuba raised America's standing in the world, and he includes education reform and energy and environmental policy advancement as important accomplishments of the Obama administration. The author acknowledges that the president did not deliver on several promises, including closing the Guantanamo Bay prison and creating meaningful legislation limiting access to firearms.