Obama has accomplished a lot in 18 months

Barack Obama already ranks among the most highly accomplished of all 44 U.S. presidents. In just 18 months in office, Obama has signed into law major health care reform that eluded presidents Bill Clinton, Richard Nixon, Harry Truman and Theodore Roosevelt; the most sweeping financial-regulatory reforms since those enacted under President Franklin D. Roosevelt; equal-pay and anti-hate crime measures that together represented the most significant civil rights legislation since the administration of Lyndon B. Johnson; renewal of the landmark strategic arms-reduction treaty first signed by President George H.W. Bush; and an economic stimulus package that included middle-class tax cuts larger than any enacted by presidents Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush.

Finally, Obama has joined Jimmy Carter, Woodrow Wilson, and Theodore Roosevelt as the only American presidents to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Tom Siebert

Elgin