The American Presidency (Barack Obama)

America, the most powerful countries in the world, and its leadership is one of the most important things to watch out for. Unlike many other countries, the president of America is vested with high power and authority, and this makes him the most powerful official in the world. America had had 45 presidents since 1789 to date. Obama was the 44th elected president of the U.S. Obama served as the president of America from 2009 to 2017. Obama’s tenure brought many changes to the history of the United States of America. The following is an essay on Obamas time in office as president of the United States of America.

The American presidency is one of the most important and influential things in the world. The president is vested with executive power. The constitution gives the president power to serve as “Commander in chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States.” The power to serve as commander in chief enables him to access to large, well equipped fighting force and a wide array of weapon systems, including nuclear weapons. As the Nation’s Diplomat the constitution grants the president with the power to make foreign treaties which is to be approved by two-thirds of Senate. Also, the president can appoint ambassadors and diplomats from foreign nations.

The president has numerous power that has not been mentioned in the Constitution. The president plays vital role in shaping national budget with active role of congress who approves the budget. The United States president is placed the head of federal law enforcement agencies including Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Drug Enforcement Administration and many more. (Wagner, 2016) Other than commitments the president has control which makes him the most influential man on the land.

As the chief of state, the president has responsibilities to the citizens. These responsibilities include awarding college scholarship winners with medals, welcoming visitors to the white house, commending astronauts on their journey to space and on the Fourth of July he has to make a patriotic speech (Witcover, 2014). Other functions include appointing government official, holding a meeting regarding government business and reading reports concerning problems of the government. Being president is not just about responsibilities and duty, but also there are some benefits. Benefits of being president of America include flying in Air Force One, taking off in Marine One, riding in the Beast, living in the White House and one earns post-presidency office and travel expenses. There are other benefits such as owning a country home, being watched over by top-notch security, personal trainers, executive chef and Movie Theater in the house and in case of death the president gets a state funeral.

Barack Obama was born in 1961 in Honolulu, Hawaii, and graduated from Columbia University. He worked as a community manager in Chicago. Later Obama studied law in Harvard and became an attorney and a professor (Austermühl, 2014). He taught constitutional law at University of Chicago law and ran for the United States Senate which he won and received a lot of attention. Obama served for three terms as senator, and then he was nominated for president and was elected president. He was inaugurated on January 2009, and he became the 44th president of America. Obama was named the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize laureate nine months after becoming president. During his time as president, Obama had many reforms which he made. One of them is the economic policy reforms which he made in his first term. It was characterized by increases on higher-income Americans moderately which was meant to fund healthcare reforms, decrease income inequality and reduce the federal budget deficit. The economy improved, and more jobs were created during his term in office, record levels were reached by corporate profits and the stock market while interest rates and inflation remained low.

The other one was the Wall Street reform which is the financial industry and the regulation of the financial industry reforms. Some of the significant changes made include the Federal Reserve Act of 1913, the truth in the lending activities of 1968, among other bills and the latest one, Wall Street reform, and protection for consumers act which following a global financial crisis was signed by President Obama.

Obama supported comprehensive immigration reform right from the beginning of his presidency. However, the bill was not passed by the Congress which made Obama turn to executive actions. He announced an executive order that would have saved four million immigrants from deportation, but it was blocked by the Supreme Court which supported a lower court’s ruling. In spite of all this, illegal deportation of immigrants continued under Obama. Although the number rose to 400,000, it went down during Obama’s second term. The passage of the immigration and nationality act of 1965 saw the number of immigrants rise its due drastically to this that President Obama planned to resettle at least 10,000 Syrian refugees (Witcover, 2014). Obama, the Supreme Court, and Congress contributed to a vast expansion of LGBT rights. In 2009, they did not ask; do not tell repeat act of 2010 was signed by Obama who ended the military’s policy of disallowing gay and lesbians from openly serving in the army. He also issued executive orders intended to help LGBT Americans. Obama also advocated for gay rights in Africa.

After several mass shootings, Obama called for gun control measures but was unable to pass a significant bill. No major bill was passed by the Congress despite Obama’s advocacy following mass shootings. Bills reducing restrictions on guns owners were signed to laws which permitted for guns transported by authorized people, and the other allowed loaded firearms to be carried. Within minutes in office as president, Obama focused on revisiting measures taken by his predecessor after the attacks on September 11. He signed the executive order 13492 which suspended all ongoing proceedings of the commissions in Guantanamo military and ordered the area to be closed (Austermühl, 2014).

The most critical action in his first days in office was the passage of the ARR act to address the great recession. Obama brought good relations between America and foreigners. He became one first president to visit India twice creating a closer association. Obama also described himself as an internationalist and was influenced by liberal interventionism and realism. Obama’s leadership is to be admired since he was the first African American to ever be president of one of the most powerful countries in the world.

In a nutshell, it’s evident that Obama is one of the presidents who brought drastic changes during his reign. Though some of the changes were not good, he ruled uniquely, and he will be remembered for a long time (Torrey, 2014). It is clear that one’s ambitions and visions can take them to places even when they have their shortcomings since no one is perfect. Former president Barack Obama serves as an example to young people to peruse their dreams.