Democrat · 2009–2017
Barack Obama
The ACA, the stimulus, Dodd-Frank, social liberalism, and a drone war he did not end.
Barack Obama was president 2009–2017. The party color on the chart is Democrat. Early presidents are not forced into today’s party names. The placement note is: The ACA, the stimulus, Dodd-Frank, social liberalism, and a drone war he did not end.
The dot is economics -28 and authority -6. That is left of center on economics. The other axis sits near the middle. Color and place are allowed to disagree. Theodore Roosevelt sits left of Grover Cleveland on economics.
What was said, and what the administration did, are filed separately. Said: Health care, a recovery, close Guantánamo, and end the mindset that took the country into Iraq. Done: The ACA and Dodd-Frank passed. Guantánamo stayed open. The drone war continued. Where those two sentences pull apart, the dot follows the governing record, not the slogan.
The nearest other presidents on these two numbers are Joe Biden (2021–2025, -30 / +10) and John F. Kennedy (1961–1963, -10 / +6). A small distance can join people who would have disliked each other. The chart is a compression, not a claim that they were alike.
Presidents are not placed with the Voteview roll-call score used for the current Congress. Two axes cannot carry a war, a court, a tariff, and a civil-rights record as separate facts.