Blake wrote:
Personally, I rate Obama's presidency as a solid "B", an "A" up until the last few months. I cannot recall any president who started his Presidency with the leader of the Senate opposition party making a statement that his goal was to make sure that NOTHING Obama pushed got passed. Nor a President who has had to face such a hostile house of representatives to get any legislation passed. There are still some of his judicial appointments open, not being brought to a vote, from his FIRST term. Nor have I ever seen the Supreme Court, an entity that is supposed to be non-partisan, become just another partisan toy. The obstacles that Obama has had to face as president are, in my opinion, greater than any president who has preceded him.
About the Affordable Care Act. Which was actually very similar to the Care program implemented in Massachusetts while Mitt Romney was governor, a program that was modified to take in several of the Republican demands a year before it was finally implemented, is something that, while far from perfect, was long overdue. Sadly, if the Senate and the House would have worked together rather than at odds, some of the flaws might have been recognized and improved on, and saved a lot of the pains and expenses that the program implementation suffered.
Obama took over a disaster when it comes to International Relations, which was a big concern for me personally, and has improved things substantially as I see it... that said, after Bush/Cheney, almost anything would be an improvement.
I would like to address the concern above about Obama "circumventing processes". He has been forced to circumvent the process because he has a disfunctional legislative body with both a House and a Senate that are more concerned about their party and who is greasing their back pockets than they are for the people they were elected to serve. A body that will vote down a good idea if the other party brings it to the table, that will stall anything the other party wants. There is a reason that both the House and the Senate have the lowest ratings in the history of either body. What president has ever had to deal with that... even when the opposition held Both bodies, there used to be at least SOME across the aisle cooperation... but not any more.
On the matter of "accountability", he has not been any less so than his predecessor. After the stonewalling seen by Cheney and Rove, it is funny to even see it mentioned that this presidency has not been accountable.
Lastly, I know it is not politically correct to say so, but I still feel that "race" is an issue with this presidency. I honestly think that a whilte President would not have had as many problems that Obama has had to face. I don't want to get into it further, as that would sidetrack the topic, but it is just a feeling that I have.
Obama has made mistakes, no doubt about it. Obama has been arrogant at times, no question (but then how do you become President without some arrogance), and at times it has been costly. Obama has been defensive at times when perhaps a softer tone would have gotten more support (from the public, not the House). However, this American thinks that Obama has done well given the walls he has had to climb.
And don't even get me started on the "tea party"..................................

Thanks Blake. I was waiting for you to post here as I thought of all the US forumites you would probably give a more in depth and partial opinion.
Most of what you said is what I've preserved from the UK media, but is also what seems to be dismissed by die hard republicans so we never know if what we see overseas is accurate or not.
As to your last point, I agree this is not the place to discuss it, but the USA does have the stereotype of still having a race orientated culture which has affected Obama's presidency a lot.