History will be kind

Future generations looking back on Barack Obama’s tenure in the White House will judge him as a good president, according to results of a recent Gallup poll. About half of those polled—47 percent—said Obama’s presidency will be remembered as “outstanding” or “above average,” compared with 35 percent who said it will be viewed as “below average” or “poor.” Those numbers improved significantly from results at the end of his first term and early in his second term, when only 38 percent (February 2012) and 28 percent (November 2013) of respondents said he’d be remembered as above average. Obama’s predicted positive legacy ranked fourth highest of the last 11 presidents, surpassed only by John F. Kennedy (79 percent), Ronald Reagan (63 percent) and Dwight D. Eisenhower (50 percent). A separate Gallup poll reported President-elect Donald Trump’s pre-inauguration approval rating at 40 percent, roughly half of Obama’s 78 percent approval rate in 2009.