War and Peace: D

Phyllis Bennis, Fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies, and contributor to Mandate for Change, discusses American presence in wars abroad during Obama’s first year in IPS’s report Barely Making the Grade: Obama’s First Year.

Barack Obama accomplished one very important thing during his first months in office. He began to transform foreign policy language and ideology away from the proudly unilateralist militarism of George W. Bush. He spoke of the importance of diplomacy over military action, global cooperation rather than global domination, re-engaging with the Muslim world, and respecting the United Nations and perhaps even international law.

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Global Economy: C

Sarah Anderson, Director of the Global Economy Project at the Institute for Policy Studies, and contributor to Mandate for Change, discusses the global economy during Obama’s first year in IPS’s report Barely Making the Grade: Obama’s First Year.

Barack Obama raised the hopes of global justice advocates by committing to significant changes in our international economic policies. As president, however, his efforts to implement alternatives have been slow to get off the ground. When the economic crisis hit, the need to overhaul our whole approach to globalization became all the more urgent. Countries that had gone the furthest to liberalize trade and investment proved to be the most vulnerable to volatile global export and investment markets. Obama took the opposite view, pointing to the crisis as a reason for postponing promised reforms, such as renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement.

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Energy and Climate Change: C+

Daphne Wysham, Fellow and Board member at the Institute for Policy Studies, and contributor to Mandate for Change, discusses Obama’s energy and climate change policy choices in IPS’s report Barely Making the Grade: Obama’s First Year.

When Barack Obama was elected president, many climate activists were thrilled. With the concentration of carbon dioxide in the Earth’s atmosphere reaching dangerous levels, and Democrats controlling the House and Senate, hopes couldn’t have been higher among climate campaigners that Obama would act swiftly to make energy and climate change one of his top priorities.

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Health Care: C-

Karen Dolan, Fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies and Director of its Cities for Peace program, and contributor to Mandate for Change, discusses Obama’s health care policy choices in IPS’s report Barely Making the Grade: Obama’s First Year.

The Obama administration, mainstream Democrats, and even many progressives are asserting that we are on the verge of a historical step forward for health reform, bringing us closer to desired affordable quality health care for all. Obama deserves credit for making health reform his top priority and likely will preside over a bill that historically covers many of the 46 million Americans currently uninsured.

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Domestic Policy: D+

Dedrick Muhammad, Senior Organizer and Research Associate for the Program on Inequality and the Common Good at the Institute for Policy Studies, and contributor to Mandate for Change, discusses Obama’s domestic policy choices in IPS’s report Barely Making the Grade: Obama’s First Year.

In terms of domestic policy, Barack Obama has had the most successful first year of a presidency since Jimmy Carter. This might seem like damning with faint praise. Although he is not remembered as a very successful president, Carter pushed through important environmental regulation in his first year, such as the Clean Water Act and the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act. Even more impressively, Congress that year passed major legislation regulating corporate behavior with the Corporate Reinvestment Act and the Unlawful Corporate Payments Act of 1977.

Obama likewise shepherded through important domestic legislation.

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