Exactly One Year To Go...

Exactly one year from the moment of this article being published, President Obama will become former President Obama, and someone new will be President. That seems really weird to me. I remember living in Iowa and working the caucuses, and he was just a candidate then. It feels like yesterday that I was working on his health care initiatives for OFA, helping people in New Jersey learn more about the ACA. It feels like yesterday that we were fighting for the ACA, frankly. Despite how it feels though, it will be ending.

So at the exact seven year mark, I wanted to mark off what I believe to be his top ten achievements as President, not in order:

1. Climate Deals with China and over 200 nations- Despite a Congress who refuses to acknowledge the reality of climate change, President Obama managed to get our one economic peer to agree to limits on carbon pollution. Then his Secretary of State played a key role in getting over 200 nations to sign on to standards.
2. The Affordable Care Act- As millions of people gain health insurance through the exchanges and the regulations and benefits kick in, the much maligned health care law continues to show it's merit.
3. Two Supreme Court Judges- Justices Kagan and Sotomayor will sit on the bench beyond the tenure of the man who appointed them. While their impact on law remains to be seen, they have already been key in bringing marriage equality to the nation, and protecting the ACA.
4. Normalizing Relations With Cuba- From the time of President Kennedy until 2015, the United States and Cuba had no diplomatic relations. The embargo failed to push the Castro regime out of power for decades, to the point of being irrelevant. Now, with small changes happening on the island, the President had the vision to change our policies. It is a most historic achievement.
5. The Auto-Bailout- Today, Detroit's car scene is having it's best run in a couple of decades. The American auto-market is thriving. President Obama could have listened to Mitt Romney and not bailed out GM and others. He didn't. He was proven right.
6. Dodd-Frank- Conservatives say the banking law puts too much regulation on the banks. Liberals say not enough. Reality says they got it a lot closer to right.
7. The Iran Nuclear Deal- Tehran has given up the nuclear ambitions they were working on in earnest after President Bush dubbed them a part of the "Axis of Evil." Through tough sanctions and negotiations that produced benefits to both sides, today we are on track to a non-nuclear armed Iran.
8. The Stimulus- In 2009, it was not clear whether or not we would make it through the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. The President pushed through a stimulus bill that made record investments in our domestic economy, and helped us begin to grow again.
9. LGBT Equality- Whether it was ending the awful practice of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," or refusing to argue on the behalf of DOMA, President Obama will probably go down as the most LGBT-friendly President of his time.
10. Ending the Iraq War and drawing down the Afghanistan War- We can argue over tactics and timing, but not the results. The President ended the failed neo-conservative foreign policies of the last Presidency, and restored our credibility in the world.

I could have cited more stuff. I don't think I need to. Clearly this Presidency was very historic, and very consequential. One year from now, we will start a new Presidency, hopefully one that continues us on a pathway forward.