Many a US president in his second term falls prey to the lame duck syndrome, in which the leader of a nation only makes it to the finish line crippled and paralyzed. However, this "law" does not apply to President Obama:he is currently enjoying one success after another. How is that possible?
President Obama's drive for action has been impressive lately. Just take all his activities for the past month. In August, he gave the tallest mountain in the US back its controversial Native American name, became the first sitting US president to visit the Arctic in Alaska to draw attention to climate change, and improved workers' rights. He also recently re-established ties with Cuba and Iran, and took firm steps on immigration and climate change mitigation. For example, he determined that in the future the CO2 emissions from power plants should be reduced by thirty percent compared to 2005.
Add to that the fact that he colored the White House in a rainbow at the end of June because of the legalization of same-sex marriage in all US states and his successes in introducing Obamacare fourth. Also think of his impressive performance at the memorial of the church shooting in Charleston and it is clear:this president wants to leave a legacy and is far from being finished.
Dreaded second term
This is particularly striking, because Obama has now entered the final phase of his presidency. In political science, an American president in his second term is sometimes described as a so-called lame duck, a crippled duck. Officially, this term only covers about two months. From the day in November when elections are held for a new president to the inauguration of his successor in January the following year. But according to Karen Johnson-Cartee, professor emeritus at the University of Alabama, among others, a president is actually considered tipsy after the midterm congressional elections, halfway through his second term. That is especially the case if the president no longer has a majority in Congress after those elections.
Such a "crippled duck" would get next to nothing in Congress and less and less media attention. It is even claimed that the second term for presidents is a true "trauma", citing the examples of Richard Nixon or Bil Clinton.
Research by Michael Nelson, an American political science professor at Rhodes College specializing in American elections and presidents, indeed shows that American presidents are almost always less successful in their second term than during their first term.
They should preferably refer to the first 'hundred days', a term (Hundred Days ) which refers to the success of former President Franklin D. Roosevelt at the start of his presidency in 1933. In his first hundred days, he piloted no fewer than sixteen new laws through Congress.
Restored trust
But Obama seems to be lame duck thus negate the phenomenon. In fact, his performance shows that he must be right about his last term as president. Well-known former critics of Obama such as economist and Nobel laureate Paul Krugman (2014) have since revised their assessment of him as a weak president without a backbone. In a piece in Rolling Stone magazine, Krugman praised him for the fact that his plan to stimulate the American economy ensured that the United States could leave the crisis behind faster than Europe. While Obama's view on the climate also demonstrates statesmanship that also keeps an eye on the long term.
Nothing to lose
How is it possible that Obama, unlike many of his predecessors, is not going downhill, but that he is achieving many successes? Being winged has not only disadvantages but also advantages. It is true that tipsy game can be stopped more easily, but the other side of the story is that as a lame duck don't have much to lose anymore. This makes it possible to focus on what is important to you without having to take too much into account the consequences, such as loss of votes and protests in your own or opposition party.
Freed from the pressure to please others, Obama seems to feel freer than ever. During his speech at the commemoration of the nine African-American churchgoers who were shot dead by a white supremacist, Obama not only astonished by successfully singing the gospel song Amazing Grace to lift. He also addressed the problem of "persistent and structural racism" against African Americans and called for reform of "too lenient" gun laws in the United States. Rather, he avoided such emotionally charged subjects or discussed them only in very general terms. He has since openly fought Congress, which he accuses of listening to the gun lobby rather than to the citizen.
Obama's speech in Charleston.
He may have finally become the leader he aspired to be in 2008, when he won the election for the first time with the slogan Change we can believe in. But he acted so cautiously that, according to many of his (former) supporters, not enough of the intended changes was implemented. Now that he feels less pressure not to antagonize certain parties, his legacy seems to be of particular interest to him, according to CNN/IBN political analyst Ayushman Jamwal. Will he go down in the books as a successful reformist president?
A great president after all?
US presidents have been ranked by political scientists and historians for decades on Presidential Greatness . Questionnaires are used to allow experts and the general public to rank the American presidents to date.
Political scientists Marc Landy of Boston College and Sidney M. Milkis of the University of Virginia describe in their book Presidential Greatness that the ultimate success of a president is mainly determined by the leadership shown, because one of the most important criteria according to them is having vision. The most recent poll in 2015 among political scientists indicated that Abraham Lincoln is the greatest president to date, and Bill Clinton the greatest among living former presidents.
History will have to show whether Obama makes short shrift of the phenomenon of the lame duck, in this respect too. and due to his leadership, at the end of his second and final term, will end up high on the Presidential Greatness Index. The predictors of a president's greatness are mainly his achieved successes and failures. Regardless, whether Obama ends up with the "greats" among presidents or not, he shows how, with the end of your reign in sight, not to be lame duck has to finish – but can still achieve surprisingly much in a mighty final sprint.