There's a reason historians, people who study history, wait years if not decades to fully judge a Presidency because the full effects of the administrations decisions can't be known the day after they leave office.
President Obama gets credit for being the first black President. We have a long history of racial trouble in our country so this is a major accomplishment. He is also a very eloquent and at times inspiring (and when he wants to be inclusive) speaker.
You are correct that people don't say President A has 2.6% growth, President B had 3.1% etc. We don't remember those exact numbers. But we do know what happened overall. We have to go back to the 1920's to find a President who didn't have at least one year of 3% economic growth during their term. Obama was in office for eight years.
As to your other claims, he didn't save the auto industry. He should have allowed the auto industry firms to file for BK as firms in other industries do. There's a reason our auto manufacturers were performing as they were and BK is set up to allow them to reorganize and attempt to compete again.
If Obamacare leads to single payer then yes he will definitely get credit for the major move in that direction. As far as advancing civil rights did you have something particular in mind?
As far as being a transformative President I'm not exactly sure what you had in mind other than he broke a major glass ceiling in this country and hopefully gave inspiration to millions of kids that they too can have and reach that dream.
His foreign policy was full of disasters highlighted with Libya and Syria. If you want an appeal to authority I'd be glad to post the work of Middle East and foreign policy scholars who state this.
You are entitled to your opinion.
I don't think anyone who voted for Dumbya and supported the catastrophic Iraq War Disaster is allowed to say Obama's foreign policy was a disaster.
Future historians place little weight on localized regional geopolitical conflicts. The Phillippine Insurrection carries almost no weight on the overall historical consensus of Teddy Roosevelts presidency. He is still considered a top five president. A Word War 2 and Civil War? Yes, great weight applies in presidential historical contexts.
For partisan reasons it could be entirely understandable why Bush voters don't want Obama's legacy ranked highly, because it would then reflect on the voting judgement of Bush voters themselves.
You could make lists all day long about Obama's achievements and mistakes. The bottom line is that I think there is a high probability history will easily rank him a transformational president, easily making the top third, or even a top ten spot.


