Barack Obama on the Issues

Barack Obama has produced powerful feelings in virtually every micro-culture in America. Few Presidents have been so surrounded by intrigue and debate or been so immediately forced to take a position on so many volatile topics. For example, even before his election, the legitimacy of his birthright citizenship was called into question, since the parents of Barack Obama were not both birthright Americans. Even after producing a birth certificate, naysayers still call for re-evaluation, and rumors circulate about an alleged Supreme Court hearing to determine Obama's citizenship status.

Upon arrival in office, Obama was handed the reins to two international wars, in Iraq and Afghanistan. During his campaign, these wars formed a large part of the political stance of Barack Obama on the issues. That is, because these wars are so polarizing America, Obama had to come down definitively on the matter. Obama's plan to begin withdrawing troops from Iraq over a six month period was quite popular among Americans who were against the war from its outset, and even among those who had initially supported it but had grown weary of continued American presence in the middle east. However, Obama has found dealing with removing troops from Iraq as difficult as his predecessor. Although plans to remove all troops from the country by 2013 are still in the works, this is no longer a pledge, but simply a goal.

Education is an issue on which Barack Obama has tried to inspire hope. George W. Bush's No Child Left Behind was not nearly as successful as people had hoped, but successfully took taxpayers' money nevertheless. Obama's revision of the plan claims to teach based on principles and less on tests. In other words, he wants students to be able to reason and not simply learn to fill in the right bubbles. Funding for his new projects would come from a delayed NASA project, and other sources.