I think the best thing he can say is that he left the economy in better condition than he received it. I wonder if people will look back at this the way some people look at FDR and see this as evidence of the bailout working.

I thought he was generally disliked right now? No?

Not saying it was because of him, but gay marriage was legalized under his administration. I think that's gonna be talked about (positively) a lot.

As we get further away and ACA gets tweaked and people start relying on it, provided it doesn't destroy our entire economy and maybe even the world, this will be a large part of his legacy, and it will probably be looked at pretty positively.

With the ACA it should be very similar to FDR's new deal. FDR also had WW2 which significantly changed how history sees him, but Obama probably has accomplished for better or worse the largest program of that type since the new deal. Depending on what side of the political fence you reside, you may think it for better or for worse, but I think he certainly accomplished in his 8 years all the major things he set out to do and some minor ones as well. Opening relations with Cuba is a big deal and it was about friggin time. I tend to view marriage equality as his too even though that was a supreme court battle. This Iran deal depending on what happens with it won't really show results until he leaves, and it really depends on how Iran behaves with it. He really didn't pay much mind to ISIS or the Arab Spring outside of whatever the arms movements were in Libya to Syrian rebels that led to the cluster fuck at Bengazi. Because he never really made a big public stand on any of these issues or tried to do much outside of American borders I don't think historians will pay much mind to that part of his presidency. The majority of his impact has been closer to home. He's had a pretty huge social impact of being the first African American president as well and he's probably brought the office into the 21st century with communication especially over the web (White House.gov petitions etc.)

Much like the new deal there's certainly some positives behind these social programs, and it also leaves us with a shitload of federal bureaucracy and waste and we still don't have an efficient health care system, but that wasn't really the goal. Everyone has the opportunity for managed care right now in some capacity. That's a big positive, I'm just not sure how we are ever going to get to a health care system that is efficient, affordable and high quality. It's sort of the same thing with transit here.

I think left leaning people will treat him sort of the way Republicans view Reagan and vice versa.

Gay marriage will be attributed to him but is really a supreme court thing, so maybe that belongs to Bush.

From my perspective, Obama's presidency has been a success.

+ ACA has already made a decent impact. Premium growth is at the lowest is has been in decades and more people are getting covered than ever before. But it's impact is so heavily tied to what what the next president will do to it that it's way too early to see how it'll impact his legacy.

Again, when do the risk corridors expire? Its too early to say anything about premium growth because the insurers haven't had to be accurate about setting rates vs. their expenditures.

End of 2016.

Yeah, that's why I said it will be tied to what the next president will do. The corridors will have to be extended. If they just run out, it's a failure.