President Obama A Small Axe?

Why boasteth thyself
Oh, evil men
Playing smart
And not being clever?
I said, you’re working iniquity
To achieve vanity (if a-so a-so)
But the goodness of Jah, Jah
I-dureth forever

So if you are the big tree
We are the small axe
Ready to cut you down (well sharp)
To cut you down

— Bob Marley

Photo Credit: Official White House Photo by Pete Souza.

President Barack Obama, the 44th President of the U.S., continues to not only outthink his Republican opposition but also shows that he is not afraid of being an outlier.

He has had to traverse some of the most difficult and turbulent economic and political terrain in modern American history.

In addition, he has had to bear some of the bitterest criticisms as well as some of the most brutal, racial, and derogatory attack that has ever meted out to an American President.

His presidency is also marked by major opposition from Republicans on the turn of every major policy decision he tries to make or implement.

However, the President has remained focused and purposeful in the goals he has set for his administration. He has ignored the calls for the carpet-bombing of Syria and other countries much to the chagrin of members of Republican Party as well as even members of his own party.

Today, the President’s report card reads like a charm and is one which he can glory in and boast about.

Some of his achievements to date include:

The Iran deal

This is an extraordinary achievement by the Obama’s administration. It took guts, political risk, and diplomacy of no mean order to reach this deal.

Obamacare

This is one most significant bill passed in the U.S. Congress since the New Deal — despite challenges in the Supreme Court.

5% unemployment

When Obama assumed office, the unemployment rate was still rising sharply. It topped out at 10 percent in October 2009, hovering just below.

Reestablishment of U.S.-Cuba Diplomatic Ties

“When the United States shuttered our embassy in 1961, I don’t think anyone thought it would be more than half a century before it reopened,” Obama said at time in the shift in policy.

The Paris climate accord

Obama led from the front in ensuring that more than 190 countries came together to adopt the most ambitious climate change agreement in history. The Paris Agreement establishes a long term, durable global framework to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions. For the first time, all countries commit to putting forward successive and ambitious, nationally determined climate targets and reporting on their progress towards them using a rigorous, standardized process of review.

The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)

TPP will make it easier for American entrepreneurs, farmers, and small business owners to sell Made-In-America products abroad by eliminating more than 18,000 taxes and other trade barriers on American products across the 11 other countries in the TPP—barriers that put American products at an unfair disadvantage today.

The President, on reflection at the end of his term in office, could very well put his feet up and join in the Bob Marley’s refrain:

So if you are the big tree We are the small axe Ready to cut you down (well sharp) To cut you down.

Moreover, the Obama administration can pat itself on the back for being the first two-term presidency without the drama of scandal, and corruption since Eisenhower.