Essay Sample on Barack Obama as a President

In November 2008, the United States reached a significant milestone; for the first time, an African-American was elected president. That president elect being none other than Barack Obama. Born in Honolulu, Hawaii to a mother from Kansas and a father from Kenya, Obama went through unique experiences throughout his childhood. His parents divorced when he was two, his mom married a college student in Jakarta, Indonesia, causing them to move there, and he barely saw his father. Despite his troubles, however, he succeeded in education and life in general. He maintained good grades in school, went to college in Los Angeles in 1979 and graduated four years later with a degree in political science, studied at Harvard Law, and first entered into politics in 1996 as a State Senator in Illinois. Like all politicians, in spite of his past, he and his presidency have been and still are viewed in a negative light by many. I’m not one of those people. I believe that Barack Obama was one of the most influential presidents in history because of his social, military, and scientific policies.

Obama’s presidency in it of itself was a milestone, yes, but his support for the members of the LGBT community was another. Not many of our presidents were pro-LGBT, so needless to say, Obama was an exception. He worked with Congress to legalize gay marriage nationwide, which became reality in June of 2015, he signed the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act which included gender identity and sexual orientation. He helped transgenders to get passports that accurately reflected their gender. He signed the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Repeal Act” in 2010, which allowed gays, lesbians, and bisexuals to serve in United States military, and he worked to ensure that LGBT couples, along with all other Americans, were accurately counted in the United States census.This is a run on sentence needs to be several individual sentences By doing all this and more, he showed his support for the LGBT community, a minority that face discrimination frequently, which made them feel heard. By doing this, he was also following US law, since the fifth and fourteenth amendments of the Constitution say that all citizens must be treated equally by the US government and the states respectively.  Therefore, there were no scandalous tactics when it came to him putting his LGBT-related policies into law; he followed the Constitution, which is precisely what the president should do.

In December 2011, Obama’s presidency helped mark another milestone. Obama ended the war in Iraq which had been going on for eight years, beginning in 2003 in response to the 9/11 attacks. This war had killed thousands of innocent Iraqi civilians and damaged lots of property, including property in villages west of the capital, Mosul, because of suicide truck bombings. In a speech, Obama declared that it was over. The troops were withdrawn from Iraq and back with their families for the holidays thanks to Obama’s key leadership and help. This was also a good move on his part because this shifted our military's focus to other issues, allotting more time to train and allowing for fewer deployments, deaths, and injuries. This was in an effort to maintain the strength of our military, which is paramount in our international relations and safety and well-being. After all, the point of a military is to protect its country’s territories and citizens from any kind of threats. A system like that needs to be as strong as it can be and taken as seriously as much as possible. 

In December 2013, an outbreak of the disease known as Ebola began in Africa. It exacerbated there and in September of 2014, this virus spread to the US. At that time, Obama ordered that around 3,000 US troops go to Liberia to help the people there by building treatment facilities and training the medical staff. Although our military is supposed to help our country, they are also called to help people elsewhere by providing humanitarian relief and medical assistance in poverty stricken areas. The majority of Africa is a prime example. By doing this, he was ensuring that our Armed Forces do their duty, which is crucial in achieving a dutiful and effective military. Obama also visited the National Institutes of Health campus in Maryland in December 2014 to see the progress that people had been making in response to this epidemic by meeting with the scientists. He also stated irrefutable facts about Ebola in an address he gave while at the campus by saying that it was “...not airborne in its transmission” and that “we can’t beat it without more funding.” When an epidemic or pandemic transpires, it is vital to provide the American people with facts and not fear. What better person to do that than the leader of the entire country? Also, a president has significant power, and scientists do too, albeit under different circumstances. When those two people connect, it helps to solve problems. In order to solve problems in the workforce, people have to communicate with one another, so this is another instance in which Obama did exactly what he was supposed to do.

Obama undoubtedly left a mark on American history and politics. Although not a perfect politician, he did benefit a significant portion of the population. After all, he was in office for eight years. His social, military, and scientific policies helped people in many different ways. Had he not put in place his LGBT policies, the curve of discrimination would not have been flattened as much and the constitution would have continued to be ignored. Not ending the war in Iraq would have resulted in more deaths of innocent Iraqi citizens, more damaged property, a damaged economy, deaths and injuries of soldiers, growing unrest, and heartbroken families and friends. In addition, had soldiers not trained medical staff and built treatment centers in the regions in Africa devastated by Ebola, and had there not been communication between politicians and scientists and health experts, the virus would have become more widespread; Ebola would have continued to manifest and destroy. Due to all this and more, Obama was without a doubt an influential president in the sense that he was dutiful, caring, and thoughtful in his actions.