Americans in a new USA TODAY/Suffolk University Poll rate the Affordable Care Act as President Obama's greatest achievement in the White House. Also, as his biggest failure.
In yet another sign of how polarized the United States remains, the signature initiative known as Obamacare draws the strongest praise from his supporters and the sharpest rebuke from his critics as Americans begin to consider how history will judge the nation's 44th president.
On one thing there is agreement across partisan lines: Six in 10 predict incoming president Donald Trump will significantly dismantle Obama's legacy. Three-fourths of Democrats call that a bad thing; three-fourths of Republicans call it a good one.
"The impression he pushed was that he wanted to undo everything on Day One, somehow, miraculously," says Megan Glidewell, 37, a college counselor from Waconia, Minn., who voted for Hillary Clinton. She was among those called in the poll. "I know that's not how it works, but it certainly felt like what he wanted and what the people who voted for him wanted."
About a third of those surveyed say Obama ultimately will be seen as a "good" president; 18% say he'll be a "great" one. But one in four say history will rate him as only "fair," and another one in four say he'll be seen as a "failed" president.
The split by party is predictably stark: 86% of Democrats say Obama will be judged to have been a good or great president; 83% of Republicans say he will be seen as a fair or failed one.
There was a lot of hope but a lot of under-delivery with him," says David Ockrim, 30, who operates a Yankee Doodle Dandy food truck in New York City.
"A total failure," scoffs Stephen Spence, 69, of Mesa, Ariz. "On the economy, on immigration, on helping people from other countries that are fighting ISIS."
"I think history would judge him well, but it's probably going to take a while," says Queen Jones, 73, a retired teacher's assistant from Mount Pleasant, N.C. "I think he'll be judged well because of what he inherited when he came in and where the economy is right now."
The poll of 1,000 registered voters, taken Wednesday through Sunday, has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
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Overall, Obama is leaving office with healthy ratings. By 55%-40%, Americans have a favorable opinion of him. That's much better than Trump's ratings, which remain underwater by 5 points — 41% favorable, 46% unfavorable — although the president-elect's standing has been improving. Just before Election Day, in late October, Trump was at 31% favorable, 61% unfavorable in the USA TODAY/Suffolk Poll.
Fifty-four percent now approve of the job Obama is doing as president.
When it comes to ranking his greatest achievements as president, close to one in four cite the Affordable Care Act. Nearly as many, 22%, name the economy's recovery after the Great Recession.
"If you look at the long-term history of the country, George W. Bush left him, frankly, with a pile of" trouble, says Kathleen Hoynes, 56, of Upper Gwynedd, north of Philadelphia, using an expletive and crediting Obama with rescuing the economy. That said, she went on, "I did not agree with a lot of what he did in not getting out of war and on race relations. He didn't do enough."
Indeed, dealing with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan ranks second on the list of Obama's failures, and handling race relations is third. It was cited by 15% of whites and 13% of blacks. As the nation's only African-American president, expectations were high that his election represented a breakthrough in race relations.
The Affordable Care Act was cited by 27% on the list of his biggest failures, nearly twice as many as any other issue.
