History UsefulNotes / BarackObama

In terms of his actual presidency, public opinion on Obama today is generally mixed, but mostly skews positive outside of the American far right. Criticism of Obama generally focuses on his inaction on immigration reform[[note]]His administration saw a record number of deportations at the time, though he ''did'' eventually try to use executive orders to circumvent Congress and protect immigrant children.[[/note]] and his tepid handling of War on Terror, in which he failed to truly resolve it and took actions that some argue exacerbated it (namely the aforementioned drone strikes). Likewise, critics of a more progressive bent have expressed disappointment with Obama for not delivering on the drastic reforms that he campaigned on (e.g. not pushing for a public option in his healthcare act, holding back on welfare spending, and refusing to prosecute Wall Street executives responsible for the 2008 recession). Additionally, retrospective analysts note that while Obama's economic recovery program benefited urban, non-redlined Americans to a strong enough degree to restore their confidence, people living in more rural parts of the country and even some middle-class suburban families didn't see the same benefits, and in some cases had the recession belatedly hit them during the urban recovery.

In hindsight, the tepid financial recovery and the consequent disillusionment among these demographics with moderate establishment Democrats like nominee UsefulNotes/HillaryRodhamClinton contributed to the election of Donald Trump in 2016. Subsequently, the Democratic Party began shifting leftwards with progressive populists like Bernie Sanders capturing the liberal zeitgeist and even moderate Democrats like Chuck Schumer adopting more liberal policies. Most notably, his former Vice President UsefulNotes/JoeBiden won the 2020 election by campaigning on a platform significantly to the left of Obama's (i.e. supporting marijuana decriminalization and investing over $2 trillion in green infrastructure, none of which Obama supported).

* AcademicAthlete: A [=POTUS=] from Harvard Law who also loves basketball (he was even playing hoops with his staff during election day). [=ESPN=] did a yearly feature where Obama would fill a March Madness bracket; he's noted for playing it safe and taking the chalk (the higher-seeded favorites).
* {{AcCENT Upon the Wrong SylLABle}}: Creator/JonStewart on ''Series/TheDailyShowWithJonStewart'' will occasionally pronounce the President's name flatly as "BA-ruck OH-buh-muh" instead of "bə-ROCK oh-BAH-muh". British media favours either "BA-ruck" (phonetically similar to 'barrack') or "buh-RACK uh-BAH-muh". The President feeds some of this himself, as he tends to use pronunciations (especially of foreign proper nouns) which are more accurate than but different to common American pronunciation. e.g. He pronounces ''Pakistan'' "pahk-ih-STAHN" rather than "PACK-ih-stan". It should also be noted that while Obama pronounces his given name with the accent on the second syllable, his father, economist Barack Hussein Obama I, did indeed stress the first syllable.
* AmazingFreakingGrace: He memorably sang the hymn in [[https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2015/06/26/transcript-obama-delivers-eulogy-for-charleston-pastor-the-rev-clementa-pinckney/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.3e430ec532d5 a eulogy]] for the victims of a church shooting in Charleston, South Carolina.

* AwesomeMcCoolName:
** "Barack" means 'blessed' in his father's native language (Kiswahili, a.k.a. Swahili). It also means 'lightning' in Hebrew (though the Hebrew word is transliterated differently).
** Creator/ChrisRock commented in one stand-up about how awesome Obama's name is:

* AwesomeMomentOfCrowning: An odd case in that the "crowning" became widely reported in media for being screwed up slightly rather than for its own importance. During the biggest inauguration ceremony in decades, John Roberts flubbed part of the oath, which Obama repeated. Roberts misplaced the word "faithfully", which Obama paused for him to correct, then repeated the mistake himself. They corrected that later, and most of the rest went smoothly. The redo didn't stop certain elements from declaring the entire thing illegitimate on account of the flub, of course. However, they forget that whether the Oath is taken correctly at precisely twelve noon or not, the President-elect automatically becomes President at precisely noon on Inauguration Day, so the whole thing is moot.
* BaitAndSwitchComparison: Obama has been noted as having the best comedic timing out of recent presidents.
-->'''Obama:''' So I've cut the tension by bringing a new friend to the White House. He's warm, he's cuddly, loyal, enthusiastic. You just have to keep him on a tight leash. Every once in a while he goes charging off in the wrong direction and gets himself into trouble. But enough about UsefulNotes/JoeBiden.
* BlackAndNerdy:
** He collects comics (his favorites are ''Spider-Man'' and ''ComicBook/ConanTheBarbarian'', and he made a Franchise/{{Superman}} reference [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vws9fTtQgz4&feature=related during the campaign]]).
** He greeted Creator/LeonardNimoy with the "Live long and prosper" [[Franchise/StarTrek Vulcan salute]], and reportedly mocked his wife's fancy belt buckle by using it as a Star Trek communicator and announcing that "we have the [[{{AppliedPhlebotinum}} dilithium crystals.]]"
** He looks distinctly nerdy in [[http://www.windycitizen.com/files/3926925767_76a554dc62.jpg these]] [[http://cache.boston.com/bonzai-fba/Globe_Photo/2009/10/23/Obama9__1256317925_6323.jpg photos]].
** His tech-focused campaign and apparent love of astronauts also gain him some nerd points.
** During a March, 2010 stop in Iowa, he stopped in a local bookstore and was photographed buying copies of all six ''Franchise/StarWars'' movies.
** He plays video games. At a minimum, we know he plays ''VideoGame/WiiSports'' bowling. On the other side of the spectrum, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk gifted him ''Franchise/TheWitcher 2'' when he visited Poland in May 2011.
** He was on ''Series/MythBusters.'' That's the nerd Brass Ring.
** [[https://twitter.com/#!/ApScience/status/169158250489585665/photo/1 He follows]] [[VideoGame/{{Portal}} Aperture Science]] on Website/{{Twitter}}.
** His Tumblr feed [[http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mbbwf7LoP71qg7oqlo1_1280.jpg referenced]] ''Film/MeanGirls'' for the first 2012 debate.
** He's [[TheMovieBuff a huge film geek]]. During his 2008 campaign for the White House, Katie Couric asked Obama what were his favorite movies. He listed ''Film/{{Casablanca}}'' ("Who doesn't like ''Casablanca''?" he added), ''Film/LawrenceOfArabia'', ''Film/TheGodfather'' Parts One and Two, and ''Film/OneFlewOverTheCuckoosNest''. "I can rattle off a bunch of movies," said Obama, "I'm a movie guy."
** When a staff member mentioned the memetic phrase "AllYourBaseAreBelongToUs", he reportedly responded with "What you say?", which is the second next line of dialogue in the TropeNamer, ''VideoGame/ZeroWing''.
* BlessedWithSuck: The myriad of problems Obama received when he assumed the presidency made him once joke that this might be the first time the ''winner'' of an election would have reason to ask for a recount. ''Website/TheOnion'' ran an article after he was elected with the headline "[[https://politics.theonion.com/black-man-given-nations-worst-job-1819570341 Black Man Given Nation's Worst Job.]]"
* BothSidesHaveAPoint: Obama's book ''The Audacity of Hope'' often employed "On the one hand... on the other hand" examinations of the merits of both sides of political impasses, and at his first major national speech at the 2004 Democratic convention he confidently declared ''"We worship an awesome God in the blue states, and we don't like federal agents poking around our libraries in the red states — we coach Little League in the blue states and have gay friends in the red states."''
* BrickJoke: In his 2008 acceptance speech he said "Sasha and Malia, I love you both more than you can imagine, and you have earned the new puppy that's coming with us to the White House." In his 2012 acceptance speech he tells his daughters "But I will say that for now one dog's probably enough".
* ButNotTooBlack: Many black people were concerned about this early in the election. Some claimed he wasn't really black because they considered blacks to be those descended from slaves, whereas Obama's father was a native African. Even aside from the early election, perspectives vary, partially due to mixed race rarely being a cultural identity in the US; most feel pressured to fit into one of the existing cultural groupings.
* ButNotTooForeign: Some say he is ineligible to be president because it is constitutionally illegal for any but a natural born US citizen to be elected to the office. Since Obama brought forth his birth certificate the issue has been dropped, except by a few fringe conspiracy theorists. Even Obama's successor Donald Trump, one of the chief proponents of the birther movement during its heyday, rescinded his remarks late into his own presidential campaign in 2016. He gleefully trolled those conspiracy theorists during the 2011 White House Correspondents' Dinner by releasing his "official birth video" which was a clip from the opening to ''WesternAnimation/TheLionKing1994'' and going out of his way afterward to inform Fox News that the video was a joke.
* CatchPhrase: "Yes We Can!", "Change", "Hope for America", "What I have said is", "There are those who say", and "Let me be clear".
* TheChessmaster: Andrew Sullivan noted how Obama seems to play "the long game", in which Obama seems to waffle on a topic early on, only to reveal he had been waiting either for a proper alignment of political allies or else waiting for his enemies to self-destruct.
* DeadpanSnarker: His reaction to the birthers, in which he opens up a roast of his political opponents with [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9mzJhvC-8E this]] video.
* DefeatMeansFriendship: He has added some former political rivals to his cabinet, most notably including [[UsefulNotes/HillaryRodhamClinton Hillary Clinton]] as his Secretary of State.
* DramaticPause: Gets into very awkward, choppy pausing like this at times.
* EmbarrassingMiddleName: His full name is Barack Hussein Obama II. Several people hastened to point out that his middle name sounds Muslim and is shared with part of the name of infamous Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. When asked who decided to name him, Obama replied, "Someone who never thought I would run for President of the United States."
* EnsignNewbie: One of the youngest Presidents ever elected, with his highest political credentials beforehand being a one-term senator. A lot of his critics were quick to point out his inexperience during his first campaign and first term.
* EveryoneOwnsAMac: Obama has been shown having a Mac. Most of his staffers also apparently own Macs and are accustomed to using them, which has caused user-adjustment and system-compatibility issues since government systems use Windows.
* FriendToAllChildren: He enjoys interacting with children and some of the most popular photos of him while he was in office depicted him playing with his daughters and the children of White House staffers. One notable incident was when he and Michelle were doing a meet and greet outside the White House there was a family with a crying baby, she continued wailing while Michelle held her, but as soon as she was handed to the President she stopped.
* HistoryRepeats:
** The right says his presidency is a mess, the left says he inherited a mess (see UsefulNotes/JimmyCarter).
** The unpopularity of George Bush results in a Democratic politician in his mid-forties, who wasn't well known outside his home state before he made headlines at the party's last presidential convention, winning the presidency by a healthy margin. The new president spends his first two years in a long battle over healthcare, loses popularity, and at the midterms the House of Representatives in the biggest Republican win in decades. New Majority Leadership in the House announces they will obstruct the president's agenda and launch countless subpoenas against the White House. Despite Democrats coming up short in Congress and the states, he's re-elected. One member of his Oval Office tries to succeed him by running for president, but is narrowly defeated by a politically inexperienced Republican opponent despite winning the popular vote (see UsefulNotes/BillClinton).
** A torch is passed to the first president from his generation and the first from a large ethnic group, who is notable for lofty rhetoric, boundless optimism, an ability to inspire, and a way of making really damn good speeches, who selects as his running mate a long-serving senator from the older generation (see UsefulNotes/JohnFKennedy). The parallel, thankfully, [[WhoShotJFK stopped there]].
*** With that in mind, his Vice President UsefulNotes/JoeBiden would take cues from UsefulNotes/LyndonJohnson by becoming POTUS afterward, albeit by winning an election four years after President Obama left office, instead of Johnson succeeding President Kennedy after he was assassinated. And just to add an extra dash of irony, JFK was the first Catholic President of the United States and Joe Biden is the second.
** He follows a two-term president from the other large party who left office with low popularity due to an unpopular war and a recession, promising to fix things. He is noted for his appearance, and his Vice President is a politician noted for his stability. After winning the election handily, his cabinet is quickly mired in controversies, and his detractors accuse him of incompetence and being the puppet of those around him (see UsefulNotes/WarrenHarding). Again, the parallel stopped there.
** He succeeds an unpopular President from Texas, and from the other large party, overseeing an unpopular war by campaigning to end said war. Despite being considered a firebrand, he governs as a moderate, in part thanks to divided government; nevertheless, his opponents strongly distrust him anyway. He ends the aforementioned unpopular war while stepping up American military intervention in other parts of the world. His election and re-election foreshadow a new electoral coalition that will support his party, but after eight years in the White House, they hand off power to a member of the opposition who campaigns as an outsider and promises a departure from the Washington status quo (see UsefulNotes/RichardNixon). Once more, the parallel wasn't a complete one.
* {{Hopemongering}}: He used the word as a way to characterize how his detractors might respond to his message.
* InsistentTerminology: While the Islamic State ''does'' go by three separate names (ISIS,[[note]]Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.[[/note]] ISIL,[[note]]Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.[[/note]] and Daesh[[note]]Their Arabic acronym.[[/note]]), he would only ever refer to them as ISIL, sometimes even correcting people who referred to them otherwise.
* IsThisThingStillOn:
** The source of his famed (with bi-partisan agreement) claim that Kanye West is a jackass. OhCrap ensued when he realized that, yes, it was still on.
** Infamous among conservatives was an incident where he was overheard telling Dmitry Medvedev that he would have "more flexibility" in his second term. The Republicans tried to make this an issue in the 2012 election, but it didn't really go anywhere as voters were more concerned with domestic issues, and would ultimately become moot after UsefulNotes/VladimirPutin's return as president of Russia saw relations between the two countries chill due to Putin's controversial actions.
* InsultBackfire: Both on the giving and receiving end of this.
** Giving:
*** The term "Obamacare" was originally coined by opponents of the Affordable Care Act in order to mock it. Later, the measure's supporters, including Obama himself, embraced the term. As Obamacare managed to survive the Trump administration [[LetsSeeYouDoBetter despite GOP efforts to repeal it]], this has ended up carrying his mark and name in the White House long after he left the seat.
*** During his final State of the Union address in 2016, he remarked that at this point, none of what he was doing should be taken as him campaigning for reelection, because "I have no more elections to campaign for." When scattered applause and cheers broke out from the crowd, he looked over to where it was coming from, gave the cheering people a flat look, and responded with "I know, because I won both of them." Cue more applause and laughter.
** Receiving: On ''Series/JimmyKimmelLive'' during the 2016 election cycle, Obama responded to tweets disparaging him and his policies, including one from [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wC1NGWM8gP8 Donald Trump]], who stated that Obama would go down "as perhaps the worst President in the history of the United States." Obama snarkily responded that at least he "[[PretenderDiss would go down as President]]". Guess who became the [[UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump 45th President]] months latter?
* {{Irony}}: Obama is the first president to be a person of color, and a monument to the country (mostly) overcoming decades to centuries of racism. His earliest known ancestor, from his (white) mother's side of the family, was John Punch, the first documented slave in the United States.
* LetMeGetThisStraight: When Osama Bin Laden was finally found and killed, the soldiers had no way to measure his height to confirm it was him (Bin Laden was a distinct 6'6"), so they had one soldier who was exactly six feet tall lay next to his corpse to confirm. When word got back to the President, Obama replied with this trope. "We sacrificed a $60 million helicopter for this operation, and nobody could afford a tape measurer?"
* MemeAcknowledgement: A common meme among those who dislike Obama's policies/actions while he was in office was to say or post "Thanks, Obama!" said in a sarcastic tone. Obama himself, near the end of his second term, made a "Thanks, Obama" video where he attempts to dunk a chocolate chip cookie into a glass of milk that was way too small to fit the cookie.
** Obama admitted he enjoyed most of the memes depicting him as the Straight Man constantly have to rein in and sometimes humor Joe Biden's zany antics. Obama joked that some of them are closer to the truth than most people will realize.
* TheMerch: The sheer amount of commemorative plates and T-shirts with Obama's face on them could very well restart the economy all by themselves. There are UsefulNotes/BarackObama "Hope-Flavoured" Condom vendors in NYC. The same New York City condom vendors sold John [=McCain=] ones as well, giving them full reign to use the pitch line, "Either one, [[DoubleEntendre you're screwed]]."
* MisaimedMarketing: The plush dolls of Obama's daughters are probably the most outrageous example, but almost as bad are the commemorative coins that turned out to be American currency with Obama stickers on them. Further examples [[http://nancyfriedman.typepad.com/away_with_words/2009/01/barackollectibles.html here]]. But there's the '''Obama Chia Head'''. A roughly full-minute ad features somber, majestic music with waving flags and a message of hope, all to honor the historic presidency of Barack Obama with a small bust in his likeness by the fine makers of Chia Pets - a tribute of respect interrupted for just a couple seconds for the requisite woman's voice cheerfully intoning "Ch-ch-ch-chia!" while the bust grows a green grassy afro in time-lapse.
* MyNewGiftIsLame:
** For their first visit to the White House, Prime Minister Gordon Brown of the United Kingdom and his wife Sarah brought some awesome and symbolic gifts. As is traditional for the hosts, the First Couple gave less impressive gifts in return...except they were a little too lame. The President gave our closest allies 25 [[UsefulNotes/RegionCoding incompatible DVDs]] of classic American movies, and the First Lady gave Mrs. Brown two models of Marine One (the presidential helicopter) for their sons. The models sell for fifteen bucks apiece at the White House gift shop.
** President Obama's later gift of an iPod loaded with Americana to Queen Elizabeth II was initially believed to be a repeat offense, but apparently she'd actually asked for it ([[CoolOldLady to replace her outdated one]]).
** At the same time as the iPod, he also gave the Queen an extremely rare autographed Richard Rogers songbook, but the media ignored that.
** And the first instance wasn't that bad. Apparently, giving a lame gift is a tradition or some such. Bush got the Queen a cowboy statue, some stuff from the Smithsonian gift shop, and a DVD of herself.
* NatureLover: His administration became notable for its effort to combat climate change, coal mining and pollution, saving endangered species, and preserving natural habitats. By the end of his presidency, he added ''29'' different national parks/monuments to the nation's roster, and expanded 5 more, [[https://www.minnpost.com/earth-journal/2017/01/obamas-record-breaking-creation-national-monuments-enduring-gift making him the president with the most national parks ever designated]].
* NecessaryFail: Played straight when he lost the Democratic nomination in a 2000 Representative race against incumbent Bobby Rush, the only time he ever lost an election. While Obama admits it was a humiliating defeat and he was way over his head, spectators credit the future president for learning from the campaign's mistakes and becoming a much more confident and effective campaigner as a result.
* NewMediaAreEvil: Subverted. A good portion of his success is attributed to judicious use of NewMedia, including holding teleconferences with bloggers. But on the other hand, he appointed [[DigitalPiracyIsEvil some ex-RIAA/MPAA lawyers]] to the Justice Department, [[http://www.osnews.com/story/23002/Obama_Sides_with_RIAA_MPAA_Backs_ACTA finally culminating]] in his approval of the Anti Counterfeit Trade Agreement.
* NiceHat: The hat Aretha Franklin wore to Barack Obama's inauguration has [[MemeticMutation taken on a life of its own]]. The Smithsonian has asked for it due to its cultural and historical significance.

* OlderThanTheyThink: Pretty much every joke made about his name during his Presidential campaign were made during his Senatorial campaign.
* OutgrowingTheChildishName: Growing up he'd been known by the nickname "Barry" (as had his father, Barack Sr.), but in college he decided he preferred to be addressed by his given name.
* OverprotectiveDad: Obama made fun of this trope when he alluded to the fact that Sasha and Malia were fans of the Music/TheJonasBrothers:
-->'''Obama:''' Sasha and Malia are huge fans, but boys, don't get any ideas. Two words for you: Predator drones. You will never see it coming.
* PunctuatedForEmphasis:
** YES! WE! CAN!
** On Twitter, following the signing of the Affordable Healthcare Act (Obamacare) into law.
--->It's. The. Law.
* {{Pun}}: He's made a few puns, such as the 2012 State of the Union where he lambasted a law that treated milk as an oil and required farmers to protect the land against milk spills. Many groans ensued at the "crying over spilled milk" joke that followed.
* SaltAndPepper: Obama and his number two, Vice President Joe Biden. Obama was the straight-laced one of the two, with a dry sense of humor (most of the time) and was always calm and very measured with the press outside of the occasional wry remark, whereas Biden was goofier and would oftentimes ramble and say silly things on live television.
* ScrewTheRulesIMakeThem: This was the general mentality the Republicans seemed to hold about President Obama. Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) even went so far as to declare that if the GOP sent any bill to President Obama's desk no matter how unpopular it was, "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tttH1dJQ--0 he'll sign this puppy]]". Obama himself made use of this in 2014: faced with strong Republican opposition to legislation he wanted, he threatened to simply use Executive Orders to accomplish his goals. It should be pointed out, however, that all of this was inline with existing law; the President does have the power to use executive orders to enact certain decisions, but ''usually'' only for a limited time, as Congress are the ones who normally enact more permanent change.
* SelfDeprecation:
** He appeared on a live edition of ''Series/TheColbertReport'' in Afghanistan. Colbert was interviewing a general, who asked Colbert to cut his hair, but Colbert refused. Obama appeared on a big screen nearby, saying he had overheard the conversation.
--->'''Colbert:''' Wait a second. You "overheard?" Are your spy satellites really that good?\\
'''Obama:''' No, but my ears are really that big.
** In a speech he gave to a group of young people who had helped during his successful 2012 campaign he told them that he didn't see himself in them, they were already better than he was since he was not politically active at their age.
** He often makes jokes about being born in Kenya and/or being a Muslim socialist as a roundabout way of mocking the conspiracy theorists.
* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism: Came into office ''very'' idealistic. He managed to hold onto it for the most part during his tenure. Though as with any President, the stresses of the job were etched into his face.
* TheSmartGuy: Well-known for his calm, intellectual demeanor. Some have accused him of being ''too'' cerebral for the American public.
* SomeCallMeTim: He went by "Barry" for a good portion of his life as a child and a young man because he was sick of people mispronouncing Barack.
* SophisticatedAsHell:
** When quoting a [[ClusterFBomb swear-happy]] classmate named "Ray" in the audio book version of ''Dreams from My Father'', he maintains his famed calm speaking voice. Contrast him calling Kanye West a "jackass", where his tone is distinctly much more casual.
** A clip of Obama saying "You gotta have them ribs, and pussy too!" circulated shortly after Donald Trump's infamous Access Hollywood tape scandal broke out, especially by Trump supporters. As it turns out, it came from a reading of ''Dreams from My Father'' Obama did; he was quoting a man's colorful, negative response to being approached by the Nation of Islam (which forbids eating pork and having sexual relationships with non-Black people).
* StopBeingStereotypical: A regular aspect of his speeches to black audiences.
* TemptingFate: Commenting on a Mean Tweet segment of ''Jimmy Kimmel'' that unlike Donald Trump, he at least would be remembered as a President did not age well. See the second example of InsultBackfire.
* TouchOfDeath: Non-Lethal, Non-intentional version known by some as the "Obama Curse". There's been a trend where Obama will express his support for a team, candidate, or cause, only for the side he's rooting for to ''lose''.

** Spoofed when President Obama made a state visit to Ireland, and joked about trying to reclaim the apostrophe that got dropped from his family's name. He himself once said:
--->'''Obama:''' When I call, they would wonder what this Muslim, or worse, this Irish O'Bama wants to do.
* VerbalTic: Has a habit of starting his sentences, "Look..."

* After a trip to Japan, he discovered that the town he was visiting was in fact called "Obama". Consequently, Japanese media has been referencing him for a while.

He's relatively young ([[OlderThanTheyLook 47 on taking office]]), being the only President born after 1946 to date, and is in a [[HappilyMarried visibly loving relationship]] with his wife Michelle, and is often seen publicly with his daughters Malia and Sasha in non-political contexts. He is also the first American president to be of mixed-race ancestry (the son of a White mother and a Black father), a fact that has been cited by some as evidence that the UsefulNotes/CivilRightsMovement has paid off. At the same time, however, his mixed-race status led to a UsefulNotes/ConspiracyTheory that Obama was not actually an American citizen, and although this theory was thought disproved when he released his birth certificate, it has regained traction, albeit to much less media coverage and well after the end of his presidency, with "evidence" that the certificate had been forged.[[note]]Though it should be noted that most legal scholars believe that it doesn’t matter where the person is born, only that he or she is an American citizen by birth and not a citizen by naturalization. Had he actually been born in Kenya, he would have been an American citizen by birth regardless because his mother was an American citizen. Neither UsefulNotes/JohnMcCain nor Ted Cruz were born in the United States (the former in the then-American-occupied Panama Canal Zone, the latter in Calgary, Alberta, Canada) but both were able to run for President because they were children of American citizens, who just happened to be born in another country.[[/note]] The conspiracy theory in hindsight was credited to a greater "whitelash" against Obama's electoral win (the very idea of a Black POTUS having ''long'' been thrown around as grist for fear-mongering by white supremacists), and the overlooking or underestimating of this whitelash is often credited with enabling the rise of the alt-right during Obama's second term, as well as Trump's victory in 2016. Thus, the idea that America entered a "post-racial" age with Obama's presidency is generally considered a hollow sentiment at best, and most agree that the Civil Rights Movement still has many battles left to fight before it can truly be declared 100% successful.

** A clip of Obama saying "You gotta have them ribs, and pussy too!" circulated shortly after Donald Trump's infamous Access Hollywood tape scandal broke out, especially by Trump supporters as an example of NotSoDifferent. As it turns out, it came from a reading of ''Dreams from My Father'' Obama did; he was quoting a man's colorful, negative response to being approached by the Nation of Islam (which forbids eating pork and having sexual relationships with non-Black people).

In terms of his actual presidency, public opinion on Obama today is generally mixed, but mostly skews positive outside of the American far right. Criticism of Obama generally focuses on his inaction on immigration reform[[note]]His administration saw a record number of deportations at the time, though he ''did'' eventually try to use executive orders to circumvent Congress and protect immigrant children.[[/note]] and his tepid handling of War on Terror, in which he failed to truly resolve it and took actions that some argue exacerbated it (namely the aforementioned drone strikes). Likewise, critics of a more progressive bent have expressed disappointment with Obama for not delivering on the drastic reforms that he campaigned on (e.g. not pushing for a public option in his healthcare act, holding back on welfare spending, and failing to indict executives responsible for the 2008 recession). Additionally, retrospective analysts note that while Obama's economic recovery program benefited urban, non-redlined Americans to a strong enough degree to restore their confidence, people living in more rural parts of the country and even some middle-class suburban families didn't see the same benefits, and in some cases had the recession belatedly hit them during the urban recovery.

In terms of his actual presidency, public opinion on Obama today is generally mixed, but mostly skews positive outside of the American far right. Criticism of Obama generally focuses on his inaction on immigration reform[[note]]His administration saw a record number of deportations at the time, though he ''did'' eventually try to use executive orders to circumvent Congress and protect immigrant children.[[/note]] and his tepid handling of War on Terror, in which he failed to truly resolve it and took actions that some argue exacerbated it (namely the aforementioned drone strikes). Likewise, critics of a more progressive bent have expressed disappointment with Obama for not delivering on the drastic reforms that he campaigned on (e.g. not pushing for a public option in his healthcare act, holding back on welfare spending, and failing to indict executives responsible for the 2008 recession). Additionally, retrospective analysts note that while Obama's economic recovery program benefited urban, non-redlined Americans to a strong enough degree to restore their confidence, people living in more rural parts of the country and even some middle-class suburban families didn't see the same benefits, and in some cases had the recession belatedly hit them during the urban recovery. In hindsight, the tepid financial recovery and the consequent disillusionment among these demographics with moderate establishment Democrats like nominee UsefulNotes/HillaryRodhamClinton contributed to the election of Donald Trump in 2016. Subsequently, the Democratic Party began shifting leftwards with progressive populists like Bernie Sanders capturing the liberal zeitgeist and even moderate Democrats like Chuck Schumer adopting more liberal policies. Most notably, his former Vice President UsefulNotes/JoeBiden won the 2020 election by campaigning on a platform significantly to the left of Obama's (i.e. supporting marijuana decriminalization and investing over 2 trillion in green infrastructure, none of which Obama supported).

He's relatively young ([[OlderThanTheyLook 47 on taking office]]), being the only President born after 1946 to date, and is in a [[HappilyMarried visibly loving relationship]] with his wife Michelle, and is often seen publicly with his daughters Malia and Sasha in non-political contexts. He is also the first American president to be of mixed-race (the son of a White mother and a Black father), and is cited as proof that the UsefulNotes/CivilRightsMovement has paid off. At the same time however, his mixed-race status led to a UsefulNotes/ConspiracyTheory that Obama was not an American citizen, and although the theory was thought disproved when Obama released his birth certificate, it has regained traction, albeit much less media coverage and well after the end of his presidency, with "evidence" that the certificate had been forged.[[note]]Though it should be noted that most legal scholars believe that it doesn’t matter where the person is born, only that he or she is an American citizen by birth and not a citizen by naturalization. Had he actually been born in Kenya, he would have been an American citizen by birth regardless because his mother was an American citizen. Neither UsefulNotes/JohnMcCain nor Ted Cruz were born in the United States (the former in the then-American-occupied Panama Canal Zone, the latter in Calgary, Alberta, Canada) but both were able to run for President because they were children of American citizens, who just happened to be born in another country.[[/note]] The conspiracy theory in hindsight was credited to a greater "whitelash" against Obama's electoral win (the idea of a Black POTUS having ''long'' been thrown around as grist for fear-mongering by white supremacists), and the overlooking of this whitelash is often credited with enabling the rise of the alt-right during Obama's second term. Thus, the idea that America entered a "post-racial" age with Obama's win is generally considered a hollow sentiment at best, and most agree that the Civil Rights Movement still has many battles left to fight before it can truly be declared 100% successful.

Comedians, satirists and impressionists often struggled to find a consistent angle in portraying Obama, as his carefully guarded, straight-laced-and-straight-faced communication style pigeonheld any of the usual gaffes that could define a president in the popular mind (Obama certainly had a few such errors, but they were complicated, and didn't make for easy comedic fodder). Website/TheOnion largely focused on Obama's controversial drone warfare attacks and the disconnect between them and his more idealistic rhetoric. ''Series/KeyAndPeele'' arguably struck the most resonant chord with their portrayal of Obama and his [[AngryBlackMan "anger translator"]] Luther, whose job it was to take the President's carefully worded language and express it in the angry terms Obama couldn't. This was related to a broader sense (and criticism) of Obama as TheSpock: profoundly rational and logical in thought processing, but unable or unwilling to channel the country's rage over, say, the economic devastation of the Great Recession, with most agreeing that a desire to avoid the AngryBlackMan stereotype was the driving impetus behind it. Obama contrasted his Spock-like rigidity though by simultaneously cultivating an image as something of a father figure for the United States, combining an air for rigid professionalism with a visible fondness for the United States and hope for it to continue improving, encouraging American youth in particular with spurring on change.

He's relatively young ([[OlderThanTheyLook 47 on taking office]]), being the only President born after 1946 to date, and is in a [[HappilyMarried visibly loving relationship]] with his wife Michelle, and is often seen publicly with his daughters Malia and Sasha in non-political contexts. He is also the first American president to be of mixed-race (the son of a White mother and a Black father), and is cited as proof that the UsefulNotes/CivilRightsMovement has paid off. At the same time however, his mixed-race status led to a UsefulNotes/ConspiracyTheory that Obama was not an American citizen, and although the theory was thought disproved when Obama released his birth certificate, it has regained traction, albeit much less media coverage and well after the end of his presidency, with "evidence" that the certificate had been forged.[[note]]Though it should be noted that most legal scholars believe that it doesn’t matter where the person is born, only that he or she is an American citizen by birth and not a citizen by naturalization. Had he actually been born in Kenya, he would have been an American citizen by birth regardless because his mother was an American citizen. Neither UsefulNotes/JohnMcCain nor Ted Cruz were born in the United States (the former in the then-American-occupied Panama Canal Zone, the latter in Calgary, Alberta, Canada) but both were able to run for President because they were children of American citizens, who just happened to be born in another country.[[/note]] The conspiracy theory in hindsight was credited to a greater "whitelash" against Obama's electoral win (the idea of a black president having ''long'' been thrown around as a point for fearmongering by white supremacists), and the overlooking of this whitelash is often credited with enabling the rise of the alt-right during Obama's second term. Thus, the idea that America entered a "post-racial" age with Obama's win is generally considered a hollow sentiment at best, and most agree that the Civil Rights Movement still has many battles left to fight before it can truly be declared 100% successful.

[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/1245178156960.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:300:While he's certainly not [[Series/TwentyFour David Palmer]], he'll do just fine.]]

** Blair Underwood's character of President Elias Martinez on ''Series/TheEvent'' bears a lot of similarity, down to the idealism (and criticism for it), and older, more 'traditional' VP. In fact, Underwood personally got to met Obama when the latter was at Harvard Law School and Underwood went there to research his role for ''Series/LALaw''.

In terms of his actual presidency, public opinion on Obama today is generally mixed, but mostly skews positive outside of the American far right. Criticism of Obama generally focuses on his inaction on immigration reform[[note]]His administration saw a record number of deportations at the time, though he ''did'' eventually try to use executive orders to circumvent Congress and protect immigrant children.[[/note]] and his tepid handling of War on Terror, in which he failed to truly resolve it and took actions that some argue exacerbated it (namely the aforementioned drone strikes). Likewise, critics of a more progressive bent have expressed disappointment with him not pushing further on healthcare reform with a public option, not embracing expanded welfare spending, and failing to indict Wall Street executives responsible for the 2008 recession. Additionally, retrospective analysts note that while Obama's economic recovery program benefited urban, non-redlined Americans to a strong enough degree to restore their confidence, people living in more rural parts of the country and even some middle-class suburban families didn't see the same benefits, and in some cases had the recession belatedly hit them during the urban recovery. In hindsight, the tepid financial recovery and the consequent disillusionment among these demographics with moderate establishment Democrats like nominee UsefulNotes/HillaryRodhamClinton contributed to the election of Donald Trump in 2016. Subsequently, the Democratic Party began shifting leftwards with progressive populists like Bernie Sanders capturing the liberal zeitgeist and even moderate establishment Democrats began adopting more liberal policies. Most notably, UsefulNotes/JoeBiden won the 2020 election by campaigning on a platform significantly to the left of Obama's (i.e. supporting marijuana decriminalization and investing over 2 trillion in green infrastructure, none of which Obama supported).

** He follows a two-term president from the other large party who left office with low popularity due to an unpopular war and a recession, promising to fix things. He is noted for his appearance, and his vice president is a politician noted for his stability. After winning the election handily, his cabinet is quickly mired in controversies, and his detractors accuse him of incompetence and being the puppet of those around him (see UsefulNotes/WarrenHarding). Again, the parallel stopped there.

* The ''[[https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/series/D42/obama-biden-mysteries Obama Biden Mysteries]]'' novels published by [[https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/ Penguin Random House]] portray Former President Barack Obama and Former VP Joe Biden as solving crimes like a modern day SherlockHolmes and [[TheWatson Dr. Watson]] after they leave the White House (with some satirical political commentary on the side).

In terms of his actual presidency, public opinion on Obama today is generally mixed, but mostly skews positive outside of the American far right. Criticism of Obama generally focuses on his inaction on immigration reform[[note]]His administration saw a record number of deportations at the time, though he ''did'' eventually try to use executive orders to circumvent Congress and protect immigrant children.[[/note]] and his tepid handling of War on Terror, in which he failed to truly resolve it and took actions that some argue exacerbated it (namely the aforementioned drone strikes). Likewise, critics of a more progressive bent have expressed disappointment for not pushing further on healthcare reform with a public option and his administration's refusal to arrest Wall Street executives after the 2008 recession. Additionally, retrospective analysts note that while Obama's economic recovery program benefited urban, non-redlined Americans to a strong enough degree to restore their confidence, people living in more rural parts of the country and even some middle-class suburban families didn't see the same benefits, and in some cases had the recession belatedly hit them during the urban recovery. In hindsight, the tepid financial recovery and the consequent disillusionment among these demographics with moderate establishment Democrats like nominee UsefulNotes/HillaryRodhamClinton contributed to the election of Donald Trump in 2016. Subsequently, the Democratic Party began shifting leftwards with progressive populists like Bernie Sanders capturing the liberal zeitgeist and even moderate establishment Democrats began adopting more liberal policies. Most notably, UsefulNotes/JoeBiden won the 2020 election by campaigning on a platform significantly to the left of Obama's (i.e. supporting marijuana decriminalization and investing over 2 trillion in green infrastructure, none of which Obama supported).

** During a March, 2010 stop in Iowa, he stopped in a local bookstore and was photographed buying copies of of all six ''Franchise/StarWars'' movies.

** He follows a two-term president from the other large party who left office with low popularity due to an unpopular war and and a recession, promising to fix things. He is noted for his appearance, and his vice president is a politician noted for his stability. After winning the election handily, his cabinet is quickly mired in controversies, and his detractors accuse him of incompetence and being the puppet of those around him (see UsefulNotes/WarrenHarding). Again, the parallel stopped there.

* MisaimedMarketing: The plush dolls of Obama's daughters are probably the most outrageous example, but almost as bad are the commemorative coins that turned out to be American currency with Obama stickers on them. Further examples [[http://nancyfriedman.typepad.com/away_with_words/2009/01/barackollectibles.html here]]. But the there's the '''Obama Chia Head'''. A roughly full-minute ad features somber, majestic music with waving flags and a message of hope, all to honor the historic presidency of Barack Obama with a small bust in his likeness by the fine makers of Chia Pets - a tribute of respect interrupted for just a couple seconds for the requisite woman's voice cheerfully intoning "Ch-ch-ch-chia!" while the bust grows a green grassy afro in time-lapse.

** Blair Underwood's character of President Elias Martinez on ''Series/TheEvent'' bears a lot of similarity, down the to idealism (and criticism for it), and older, more 'traditional' VP. In fact, Underwood personally got to met Obama when the latter was at Harvard Law School and Underwood went there to research his role for ''Series/LALaw''.

--->'''Michael [=McIntyre=]:''' Barack Hussein Obama is a terrible name to run for american president. "Barack" sounds like "Iraq", "Hussein" reminds one of Saddam Hussein and "Obama" sounds like "Osama". But still he did. He became president. And I imagine many young black kids here in Britain see this and think "I could get elected Prime Minister! If I work hard and devote myself, I can make it" -- "No, I don't think so, Adolf Mugabe Fritzl."

* In ''Manga/{{Gintama}}'' 165 episode, which is [[spoiler: in bigger part a halucination caused by fever,]] Katsura due to virus became a cross between Will Smith and Barack Obama, and a catchphrase "Yes, we can!" used.

* ''Series/KeyAndPeele'' loved to spoof him and his seeming inflappability, with Jordan Peele's Obama being accompanied by Keegan Michael Key's Luther, Obama's "Anger Translator". President Obama has said that this is his favorite impression and even went as far as to include Luther during his [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HkAK9QRe4ds 2015 White House Correspondents' Dinner performance]].

* Obama is played by Fred Armisen (who, like Obama, is of mixed origin, only Armisen is Venezuelan on his mom's side and German and Japanese on his father's side) on ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'', who, despite being white enough to regularly play Steve Jobs (or Prince [who, like Obama, is also half-black, half-white]), does the part with just a wig and some tape to make his ears stick out. These sketches seem a ''lot'' less afraid of UnfortunateImplications than most parodies, though ''SNL'' has made similar casting decisions in the past, most famously the even-whiter-than-Armisen Darrell Hammond as Jesse Jackson (with Hammond in tan make-up). Wrestling/DwayneJohnson (who is Black-Canadian on his dad's side and Samoan on his mom's side) also played Barack Obama -- or to be more precise, his Incredible Hulk-esque alter ego called "The Rock" Obama, who throws anyone who angers or disagrees with him out the window of the Oval Office (while still speaking in measured tones). From the season 38 onward, Obama is played by Jay Pharoah.

* The ''[[https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/series/D42/obama-biden-mysteries Obama Biden Mysteries]]'' novels published by [[https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/ Penguin Random House]] portray Former President Barack Obama and Former VP Joe Biden as solving crimes like a modern day SherlockHolmes and [[TheWatson Dr Watson]] after they leave the White House (with some satirical political commentary on the side).

** Blair Underwood's character of President Elias Martinez on ''Series/TheEvent'' bears a lot of similarity, down the to idealism (and criticism for it), and older, more 'traditional' VP.

'''Barack Hussein Obama II''' (born August 4, 1961) served as the 44th President of the United States of America from [[TurnOfTheMillennium January 20, 2009]] to [[TheNewTens January 20, 2017]], succeeding UsefulNotes/GeorgeWBush and preceding UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump. Born in Honolulu to a white American mother and a Kenyan father, he spent his childhood in Indonesia and Hawaii before attending Harvard Law School and eventually settling in Chicago, where he worked as a community organizer and a college professor before being elected to the state Senate in 1996, and from there to the U.S. Senate in 2004.

In terms of his actual presidency, public opinion on Obama today is generally mixed, but mostly skews positive outside of the American far right. Criticism of Obama generally focuses on his inaction towards and silence on immigration reform (with his administration seeing a record number of deportations at the time, though he ''did'' eventually try to use executive orders to circumvent Congress and protect immigrant children) and his tepid handling of the conflict in the Middle East, failing to truly resolve it and taking actions that some argue exacerbated it (namely the aforementioned drone strikes); his controversially distant response to the rise of ISIS during his second term is an especially big point of focus in terms of his shortcomings. Additionally, retrospective analysts note that while Obama's economic recovery program benefited urban, non-redlined Americans to a strong enough degree to restore their confidence, people living in more rural parts of the country and even some middle-class suburban families didn't see the same benefits, and in some cases had the recession belatedly hit them during the urban recovery. In hindsight, this and the consequent disillusionment among these demographics with moderate establishment Democrats like nominee UsefulNotes/HillaryRodhamClinton is generally considered a contributing factor behind the election of Donald Trump in 2016. Subsequently, the Democratic Party began shifting leftwards with progressive populists like Bernie Sanders capturing the liberal zeitgeist and even moderate establishment Democrats began adopting more liberal policies. Most notably, UsefulNotes/JoeBiden won the 2020 election by campaigning on a platform significantly to the left of Obama's (i.e. supporting marijuana decriminalization, investing over 2 trillion in green infrastructure and abolishing the death penalty, none of which Obama supported).

In terms of his actual presidency, public opinion on Obama today is generally mixed, but mostly skews positive outside of the American far right. Criticism of Obama generally focuses on his inaction towards and silence on immigration reform (with his administration seeing a record number of deportations at the time, though he ''did'' eventually try to use executive orders to circumvent Congress and protect immigrant children) and his tepid handling of the conflict in the Middle East, failing to truly resolve it and taking actions that some argue exacerbated it (namely the aforementioned drone strikes); his controversially distant response to the rise of ISIS during his second term is an especially big point of focus in terms of his shortcomings. Additionally, retrospective analysts note that while Obama's economic recovery program benefited urban, non-redlined Americans to a strong enough degree to restore their confidence, people living in more rural parts of the country and even some middle-class suburban families didn't see the same benefits, and in some cases had the recession belatedly hit them during the urban recovery. In hindsight, this and the consequent disillusionment among these demographics with moderate establishment Democrats like nominee UsefulNotes/HillaryRodhamClinton is generally considered a contributing factor behind the election of Donald Trump in 2016. Subsequently, the Democratic Party began shifting leftwards with progressive populists like Bernie Sanders capturing the liberal zeitgeist and even moderate establishment Democrats began adopting more liberal policies. Most notably, UsefulNotes/JoeBiden won the 2020 election by campaigning on a platform significantly to the left of Obama's (i.e. supporting Marijuana decriminalization, investing over 2 trillion in green infrastructure and abolishing the death penalty, none of which Obama supported).

Comedians, satirists and impressionists often struggled to find a consistent angle in portraying Obama, as his carefully guarded, straight-laced-and-straight-faced communication style pigeonheld any of the usual gaffes that could define a president in the popular mind (Obama certainly had a few such errors, but they were complicated, and didn't make for easy comedic fodder). Website/TheOnion largely focused on Obama's controversial drone warfare attacks and the disconnect between them and his more idealistic rhetoric. ''Series/KeyAndPeele'' arguably struck the most resonant chord with their portrayal of Obama and his [[AngryBlackMan "anger translator"]] Luther, whose job it was to take the President's carefully worded language and express it in the angry terms Obama couldn't. This was related to a broader sense (and criticism) of Obama as TheSpock: profoundly rational and logical in thought processing, but unable or unwilling to channel the country's rage over, say, the economic devastation of the Great Recession, with most agreeing that a desire to avoid the AngryBlackMan stereotype was the driving impetus behind it. Obama contrasted his Spocklike rigidity though by simultaneously cultivating an image as something of a father figure for the United States, combining an air for rigid professionalism with a visible fondness for the United States and hope for it to continue improving, encouraging American youth in particular with spurring on change.

* TheLoad: UsefulNotes/JoeBiden is noted as being an odd inverse StrawmanHasAPoint, where many of his comments meant in praise of Obama would, if anyone else were saying it, be savage criticism (such as suggesting that if Obama was elected a crisis would appear to test him, ''after'' he was selected as VP).

* OlderSidekick: Joe Biden, who also counts as PluckyComicRelief, a welcome change from his, to be diplomatic, more distant and less-congenial predecessor UsefulNotes/DickCheney. Biden was also a bit of a (vice) [[OurPresidentsAreDifferent President Buffoon]] thanks to his many verbal gaffes.

He's relatively young ([[OlderThanTheyLook 47 on taking office]]), being the only President born after 1946 to date,[[note]]And barring any major surprises, will remain so until at least 2025.[[/note]] and is in a [[HappilyMarried visibly loving relationship]] with his wife Michelle, and is often seen publicly with his daughters Malia and Sasha in non-political contexts. He is also the first American president to be of mixed-race (the son of a White mother and a Black father), and is cited as proof that the UsefulNotes/CivilRightsMovement has paid off. At the same time however, his mixed-race status led to a UsefulNotes/ConspiracyTheory that Obama was not an American citizen, and although the theory was thought disproved when Obama released his birth certificate, it has regained traction, albeit much less media coverage and well after the end of his presidency, with "evidence" that the certificate had been forged.[[note]]Though it should be noted that most legal scholars believe that it doesn’t matter where the person is born, only that he or she is an American citizen by birth and not a citizen by naturalization. Had he actually been born in Kenya, he would have been an American citizen by birth regardless because his mother was an American citizen. Neither UsefulNotes/JohnMcCain nor Ted Cruz were born in the United States (the former in the then-American-occupied Panama Canal Zone, the latter in Calgary, Alberta, Canada) but both were able to run for President because they were children of American citizens, who just happened to be born in another country.[[/note]] The conspiracy theory in hindsight was credited to a greater "whitelash" against Obama's electoral win (the idea of a black president having ''long'' been thrown around as a point for fearmongering by white supremacists), and the overlooking of this whitelash is often credited with enabling the rise of the alt-right during Obama's second term. Thus, the idea that America entered a "post-racial" age with Obama's win is generally considered a hollow sentiment at best, and most agree that the Civil Rights Movement still has many battles left to fight before it can truly be declared 100% successful.

* OlderSidekick: Joe Biden, who also counts as PluckyComicRelief, a welcome change from his, to be diplomatic, more distant and less-congenial predecessor. Biden was also a bit of a (vice) [[OurPresidentsAreDifferent President Buffoon]] thanks to his many verbal gaffes.

In terms of his actual presidency, public opinion on Obama today is generally mixed, but mostly skews positive outside of the American far right. Criticism of Obama generally focuses on his inaction towards and silence on immigration reform (with his administration seeing a record number of deportations at the time, though he ''did'' eventually try to use executive orders to circumvent Congress and protect immigrant children) and his tepid handling of the conflict in the Middle East, failing to truly resolve it and taking actions that some argue exacerbated it (namely the aforementioned drone strikes); his controversially distant response to the rise of ISIS during his second term is an especially big point of focus in terms of his shortcomings. Additionally, retrospective analysts note that while Obama's economic recovery program benefited urban, non-redlined Americans to a strong enough degree to restore their confidence, people living in more rural parts of the country and even some middle-class suburban families didn't see the same benefits, and in some cases had the recession belatedly hit them during the urban recovery. In hindsight, this and the consequent disillusionment among these demographics with moderate establishment Democrats like nominee UsefulNotes/HillaryRodhamClinton is generally considered a contributing factor behind the election of Donald Trump in 2016. Subsequently, the Democratic Party began shifting leftwards with progressive populists like Bernie Sanders capturing the liberal zeitgeist and even older establishment figures like Chuck Schumer adopting more liberal policies. Most notably, UsefulNotes/JoeBiden won the 2020 election by campaigning on a platform significantly to the left of Obama's (i.e. supporting Marijuana decriminalization and creating a public health care option, neither of which Obama supported).

** More infamous, especially with conservatives, is an incident where he was overheard telling Dmitry Medvedev that he would have "more flexibility" in his second term. The Republicans tried to make this an issue in the 2012 election, but it didn't really go anywhere as voters were more concerned with domestic issues.

In terms of his actual presidency, public opinion on Obama today is generally mixed, but mostly skews positive outside of the American far right. Criticism of Obama generally focuses on his inaction towards and silence on immigration reform (with his administration seeing a record number of deportations at the time, though he ''did'' eventually try to use executive orders to circumvent Congress and protect immigrant children) and his tepid handling of the conflict in the Middle East, failing to truly resolve it and taking actions that some argue exacerbated it (namely the aforementioned drone strikes); his controversially distant response to the rise of ISIS during his second term is an especially big point of focus in terms of his shortcomings. Additionally, retrospective analysts note that while Obama's economic recovery program benefited urban, non-redlined Americans to a strong enough degree to restore their confidence, people living in more rural parts of the country and even some middle-class suburban families didn't see the same benefits, and in some cases had the recession belatedly hit them during the urban recovery. In hindsight, this and the consequent disillusionment among these demographics with moderate establishment Democrats like nominee UsefulNotes/HillaryRodhamClinton is generally considered a contributing factor behind the election of Donald Trump in 2016. Subsequently, the Democratic Party began shifting to the leftwards with progressive populists like Bernie Sanders capturing the liberal zeitgeist and even older establishment figures like Chuck Schumer adopting more liberal policies. Most notably, later Democratic president UsefulNotes/JoeBiden campaigned on a platform significantly to the left of Obama's on issues such as environment, government spending, and law enforcement.

* SophisticatedAsHell: When quoting a [[ClusterFBomb swear-happy]] classmate named "Ray" in the audio book version of ''Dreams from My Father'', he maintains his famed calm speaking voice. Contrast him calling Kanye West a "jackass", where his tone is distinctly much more casual.

[[caption-width-right:300:Totally not [[Series/TwentyFour David Palmer]] at all, but he'll do.]]

'''Barack Hussein Obama II''' (born August 4, 1961) served as the 44th President of the United States of America from [[TurnOfTheMillennium 2009]] to [[TheNewTens 2017]], succeeding UsefulNotes/GeorgeWBush and preceding UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump. Born in Honolulu to a white American mother and a Kenyan father, he spent his childhood in Indonesia and Hawaii before attending Harvard Law School and eventually settling in Chicago, where he worked as a community organizer and a college professor before being elected to the state Senate in 1996, and from there to the U.S. Senate in 2004.

He's relatively young ([[OlderThanTheyLook 47 on taking office]]), being the only President born after 1946 to date,[[note]]And barring any major surprises, will remain so until at least 2025.[[/note]] and is in a [[HappilyMarried visibly loving relationship]] with his wife Michelle, and is often seen publicly with his daughters Malia and Sasha in non-political contexts. He is also the first American president to be mixed-race (the son of a White mother and a Black father), and is cited as proof that the UsefulNotes/CivilRightsMovement has paid off. At the same time however, his mixed-race status led to a UsefulNotes/ConspiracyTheory that Obama was not an American citizen, and although the theory was thought disproved when Obama released his birth certificate, it has regained traction, albeit much less media coverage and well after the end of his presidency, with "evidence" that the certificate had been forged.[[note]]Though it should be noted that most legal scholars believe that it doesn’t matter where the person is born, only that he or she is an American citizen by birth and not a citizen by naturalization. Had he actually been born in Kenya, he would have been an American citizen by birth regardless because his mother was an American citizen. Neither UsefulNotes/JohnMcCain nor Ted Cruz was born in the United States but both were able to run for President because they were children of American citizens who just happened to be born in another country.[[/note]] The conspiracy theory in hindsight was credited to a greater "whitelash" against Obama's electoral win (the idea of a black president having long been thrown around as a point for fearmongering by white supremacists), and the overlooking of this whitelash is often credited with enabling the rise of the alt-right during Obama's second term. Thus, the idea that America entered a "post-racial" age with Obama's win is generally considered a hollow sentiment at best, and most agree that the Civil Rights Movement still has many battles left to fight before it can truly be declared 100% successful.

Comedians, satirists and impressionists often struggled to find a consistent angle in portraying Obama, as his carefully guarded communication style robbed them of the usual gaffes that could define a president in the popular mind (Obama certainly had a few such errors, but they were complicated and didn't make for easy comedic fodder). Website/TheOnion largely focused on Obama's controversial drone warfare attacks and the disconnect between them and his more idealistic rhetoric. ''Series/KeyAndPeele'' arguably struck the most resonant chord with their portrayal of Obama and his [[AngryBlackMan "anger translator"]] Luther, whose job it was to take the President's carefully worded language and express it in the angry terms Obama couldn't. This was related to a broader sense (and criticism) of Obama as TheSpock: intensely rational, but unable or unwilling to channel the country's rage over, say, the economic devastation of the Great Recession, with most agreeing that a desire to avoid the AngryBlackMan stereotype was the driving impetus behind it. Obama contrasted his Spocklike rigidity though by simultaneously cultivating an image as something of a father figure for the United States, combining an air for rigid professionalism with a visible fondness for the United States and hope for it to continue improving, encouraging American youth in particular with spurring on change.

However, in terms of portrayals of Obama and his public image, the biggest outlet for both has been the internet. With his presidency encompassing the Internet's evolution from a niche utility to a mainstream commodity, Obama's legacy is by and large an online one. His presidency is largely remembered through its constant status as a source for MemeticMutation, aided by his [[InherentlyFunnyWord inherently amusing-sounding name]], his BlackAndNerdy hobbies and interests (which became known around the time when geek culture went mainstream), his online-friendliness, and his skilled invocations of TheComicallySerious. Memes about Obama (most of them generally benign) still pop up here and there to this day, and he's regarded as the most meme-friendly president in US history.

* {{AcCENT Upon the Wrong SylLABle}}: Creator/JonStewart on ''Series/TheDailyShowWithJonStewart'' will occasionally pronounce the President's name flatly as "BA-ruck OH-buh-muh" instead of "bə-ROCK oh-BAH-muh". British media favours either "BA-ruck" (like the word 'barrack') or "buh-RACK uh-BAH-muh". The President feeds some of this himself, as he tends to use pronunciations (especially of foreign proper nouns) which are more accurate than but different to common American pronunciation. e.g. He pronounces ''Pakistan'' "pahk-ih-STAHN" rather than "PACK-ih-stan". It should also be noted that while Obama pronounces his given name with the accent on the second syllable, his father, economist Barack Hussein Obama I, did indeed stress the first syllable.

** During a March, 2010 stop in Iowa, he stopped in a local bookstore and was photographed buying a copy of all six ''Franchise/StarWars'' movies.

In terms of his actual presidency, public opinion on Obama today is generally mixed, but mostly skews positive outside of the American far right. Criticism of Obama generally focuses on his inaction towards and silence on immigration reform (with his administration seeing a record number of deportations at the time, though he ''did'' eventually try to use executive orders to circumvent Congress and protect immigrant children) and his tepid handling of the conflict in the Middle East, failing to truly resolve it and taking actions that some argue exacerbated it (namely the aforementioned drone strikes); his controversially distant response to the rise of ISIS during his second term is an especially big point of focus in terms of his shortcomings. Additionally, retrospective analysts note that while Obama's economic recovery program benefited urban, non-redlined Americans to a strong enough degree to restore their confidence, people living in more rural parts of the country and even some middle-class suburban families didn't see the same benefits, and in some cases had the recession belatedly hit them during the urban recovery. In hindsight, this and the consequent disillusionment among these demographics with moderate establishment Democrats like nominee UsefulNotes/HillaryRodhamClinton is generally considered a major -- yet frequently overlooked -- factor behind the election of Donald Trump in 2016, and later Democratic president UsefulNotes/JoeBiden's continuation of Obama's relatively moderate approach to governing became the subject of criticism almost immediately.

He's relatively young ([[OlderThanTheyLook 47 on taking office]]), being the only President born after 1946 to date,[[note]]And barring any major surprises, will remain so until at least 2025[[/note]] and is in a [[HappilyMarried visibly loving relationship]] with his wife Michelle, and is often seen publicly with his daughters Malia and Sasha in non-political contexts. He is also the first American president to be mixed-race (the son of a White mother and a Black father), and is cited as proof that the UsefulNotes/CivilRightsMovement has paid off. At the same time however, his mixed-race status led to a UsefulNotes/ConspiracyTheory that Obama was not an American citizen, and although the theory was thought disproved when Obama released his birth certificate, it has regained traction, albeit much less media coverage and well after the end of his presidency, with "evidence" that the certificate had been forged. [[note]]Though it should be noted that most legal scholars believe that it doesn’t matter where the person is born, only that he or she is an American citizen by birth and not a citizen by naturalisation. Had he actually been born in Kenya, he would have been an American citizen by birth regardless because his mother was an American citizen. Neither UsefulNotes/JohnMcCain nor Ted Cruz was born in the United States but both were able to run for President because they were children of American citizens who just happened to be born in another country.[[/note]] The conspiracy theory in hindsight was credited to a greater "whitelash" against Obama's electoral win (the idea of a black president having long been thrown around as a point for fearmongering by white supremacists), and the overlooking of this whitelash is often credited with enabling the rise of the alt-right during Obama's second term. Thus, the idea that America entered a "post-racial" age with Obama's win is generally considered a hollow sentiment at best, and most agree that the Civil Rights Movement still has many battles left to fight before it can truly be declared 100% successful.

However, in terms of portrayals of Obama and his public image, the biggest outlet for both has been the internet. With his presidency encompassing the internet's evolution from a niche utility to a mainstream commodity, Obama's legacy is by and large an online one. His presidency is largely remembered through its constant status as a source for MemeticMutation, aided by his [[InherentlyFunnyWord inherently amusing-sounding name]], his BlackAndNerdy hobbies and interests (which became known around the time when geek culture went mainstream), his online-friendliness, and his skilled invocations of TheComicallySerious. Memes about Obama are still popping up here and there to this day (most of which are generally benign), and he's regarded as the most meme-friendly president in US history.

In terms of his actual presidency, public opinion on Obama today is generally mixed, but mostly skews positive outside of the American far-right. Criticism of Obama generally focuses on his inaction towards and silence on immigration reform (with his administration seeing a record number of deportations at the time, though he ''did'' eventually try to use executive orders to circumvent Congress and protect immigrant children) and his tepid handling of the conflict in the Middle East, failing to truly resolve it and taking actions that some argue exacerbated it (namely the aforementioned drone strikes); his controversially distant response to the rise of ISIS during his second term is an especially big point of focus in terms of his shortcomings. Additionally, retrospective analysts note that while Obama's economic recovery program benefited urban, non-redlined Americans to a strong enough degree to restore their confidence, people living in more rural parts of the country and even some middle-class suburban families didn't see the same benefits, and in some cases had the recession belatedly hit them during the urban recovery. In hindsight, this and the consequent disillusionment among these demographics with moderate establishment Democrats like nominee UsefulNotes/HillaryClinton is generally considered a major-- yet frequently overlooked-- factor behind the election of Donald Trump in 2016, and later Democratic president UsefulNotes/JoeBiden's continuation of Obama's relatively moderate approach to governing became the subject of criticism almost immediately.

That said, most agree that he came at a time when an upbeat president like himself was most needed, with his optimistic campaign messages and fatherly demeanor being considered highly beneficial in maintaining American morale in the face of the Great Recession. His push for domestic social and economic reform also garnered favor among the American left (even if his Affordable Care Act was simply repurposing a failed bill by UsefulNotes/RichardNixon), and his combination of an articulately dignified demeanor and lighthearted sense of dry humor led many to regard him as an excellent public relations figure as well. Furthermore, despite the mixed response to his handling of the conflict in the Middle East, the killing of Al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden in 2011 under his command was generally regarded as a great moment of catharsis for America, nearly ten years after the September 11 attacks that had so thoroughly shaken the world at the start of Bush's term.

* AnalogyBackfire: Comparisons to Lincoln and Kennedy, who were both assassinated. [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] in a "Between the Lines" segment of ''Series/MockTheWeek'':
-->'''Greg (Obama):''' Ladies and gentlemen, I'm going to attempt to emulate my political heroes: Lincoln, Kennedy, Martin Luther King.\\

** Chris Rock commented in one stand-up about how awesome Obama's name is:
--->'''Chris Rock:''' ''Barack Obama''. That sounds like a guy waving a spear! You expect to see the bass player of The Commodores with a name like that!

* EnsignNewbie: One of the youngest Presidents ever elected, with his highest political credentials before hand being a one term senator. A lot of his critics were quick to point out his inexperience during his first campaign and first term.

** The unpopularity of George Bush results in a Democratic politician in his mid-forties winning the presidency by a healthy margin, the president spends his first two years in a long battle over healthcare, loses popularity, and at the midterms the House of Representatives in the biggest Republican win in decades. New Majority Leadership in the House announces they will obstruct the president's agenda and launch countless subpoenas against the White House. One member of his Oval Office tries to succeed him by running for president, but is narrowly defeated by a politically-inexperienced Republican opponent despite winning the popular vote (see UsefulNotes/BillClinton).
** A torch is passed to the first President from his generation and the first from a large ethnic group, who is notable for lofty rhetoric, boundless optimism, an ability to inspire, and a tendency to make really damn good speeches, who selects as his running mate a long-tenured Senator from the older generation (see UsefulNotes/JohnFKennedy). The parallel, thankfully, [[WhoShotJFK stopped there]].

** He follows a two term president who left office with low popularity due to an unpopular war and and a recession, promising to fix things. He is noted for his appearance, and his vice president is a politician noted for his stability. After winning the election handily, his cabinet is quickly mired in controversies, and his detractors accuse him of incompetence and being the puppet of those around him (see UsefulNotes/WarrenHarding). Again, the parallel stopped there.
** He succeeds an unpopular Texan President overseeing an unpopular war by campaigning to end said war. Despite being considered a firebrand, he governs as a moderate, in part thanks to divided government; nevertheless, his opponents strongly distrust him anyway. He ends the aforementioned unpopular war while stepping up American military intervention in other parts of the world. His election and re-election foreshadow a new electoral coalition that will support his party, but after eight years in the White House, they hand off power to a member of the opposition who campaigns as an outsider and promises a departure from the Washington status quo (see UsefulNotes/RichardNixon). Once more, the parallel wasn't a complete one.

* InsistentTerminology: While the Islamic State ''does'' go by three separate names (ISIS[[note]]Islamic State of Iraq and Syria[[/note]], ISIL[[note]]Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant[[/note]], and Daesh[[note]]their Arabic acronym[[/note]]), he would only ever refer to them as ISIL, sometimes even correcting people who referred to them otherwise.

** The source of his famed (with bi-partisan agreement) claim that Kanye West is a jackass. OhCrap ensued when he realised that, yes, it was still on.

*** The term "Obamacare" was originally coined by opponents of the Affordable Care Act in order to mock it. Later, the term was embraced by its supporters, including Obama himself. As Obamacare managed to survive well into the Trump Administration [[LetsSeeYouDoBetter despite efforts to repeal it]], this has ended up carrying his mark and name in the White House long after he left the seat.
*** During his final State of the Union Address in 2016, he remarked that at this point, none of what he was doing should be taken as him campaigning for reelection, because "I have no more elections to campaign for." When scattered applause and cheers broke out from the crowd, he looked over to where it was coming from, gave the cheering people a flat look, and responded with "I know, because I won both of them." Cue more applause and laughter.
** Receiving:
*** On ''Series/JimmyKimmelLive'' during the 2016 election cycle, Obama responded to tweets disparaging him and his policies, including one from [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wC1NGWM8gP8 Donald Trump]], who stated that Obama would go down "as perhaps the worst President in the history of the United States." Obama snarkily responded that at least he "[[PretenderDiss would go down as President]]". Guess who became the [[UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump 45th President]] months latter?

In terms of his actual presidency, public opinion on Obama today is generally mixed, but mostly skews positive outside of the American far-right. Criticism of Obama generally focuses on his inaction towards and silence on immigration reform and his tepid handling of the conflict in the Middle East, failing to truly resolve it and taking actions that some argue exacerbated it (namely the aforementioned drone strikes); his controversially distant response to the rise of ISIS during his second term is an especially big point of focus in terms of his shortcomings. Additionally, retrospective analysts note that while Obama's economic recovery program benefited urban, non-redlined Americans to a strong enough degree to restore their confidence, people living in more rural parts of the country and even some middle-class suburban families didn't see the same benefits, and in some cases had the recession belatedly hit them during the urban recovery. In hindsight, this and the consequent disillusionment among these demographics with moderate establishment Democrats like nominee UsefulNotes/HillaryClinton is generally considered a major-- yet frequently overlooked-- factor behind the election of Donald Trump in 2016.