Do you recall how President Obama got a Nobel Prize for Peace before he even had a chance to pick the drapes in the White House? The world was so angry with George W Bush for the Iraq war that they wanted to send a message by embracing Obama’s victory. Fortunately for the Nobel committee, President Obama has had 8 years of solid accomplishment in office. Before I get to the good stuff let me list out some disappointments, as an Indian American.

(1)   Criminal justice system: One would have thought as the nation’s first black president, there would be nothing more important than addressing the gross injustice of the American criminal justice system. Blacks are imprisoned at a rate that is many times higher than whites leading to 1 in 4 black children who can expect to end up in jail. This is the starting point that leads to broken families and a broken society and Obama knows this. Yet, he did little to address this.

(2)   Race relations: Relations between races have not been this low in decades. Perhaps it is the prevalence of social media and smartphones that has given us a ringside view of the underbelly of the police system, systemic discrimination, and so on but here we are. In the first few months of Obama’s presidency when a black Harvard professor was arrested for breaking into his own house, I thought that would set the stage to tackle this issue head on. Instead, President Obama invited the white police officer to the White House for a beer.

(3)   India: Every Indian American and about a billion Indians were delighted by President George W Bush’s grand gesture to India by signing a nuclear deal with it and bringing India on to the world stage as a trusted partner of the US. Obama has barely acknowledged India, or most other world issues for that matter, only acting on issues when dragged in by events outside his control. Naturally, the US’s immediate priority is terrorism and hence sorting out the mess in Iraq and Syria is where our attention should be. However, I cannot help thinking that we may have squandered a great opportunity to strengthen ties between the world’s two greatest democracies.

OK, now for the good stuff. This is a long list so I will highlight just the main accomplishments:

(1)   Healthcare reform: Obamacare enabled an additional 20 million Americans to get health insurance when they had none before. A great accomplishment. Some of us were hoping for 100% coverage so that every American gets health insurance but I guess 90% is better than where we were before. This brings us a step closer to other developed nations who care for every one of their citizens.

(2)   Cuba and Iran: Ending over 50 years of isolating Cuba and normalizing relations was long overdue and President Obama delivered on that. He also struck a deal with Iran that hopefully we can look back on proudly in 20 years as being a success. Perhaps hard to celebrate the Iran deal just yet but I believe getting that done took courage. So that just leaves North Korea as an “evil doer”.

(3)   Jobs and the economy: President Obama took over when we were reeling from the financial crisis. We are now back to robust job growth and a relatively strong economy. None of the other developed economies have recovered as well as the US and that is a direct testimony to Obama’s leadership.

President Obama has had a successful eight years. However, it is debatable how history will judge him since he has steered the ship carefully but not aimed for a bold or memorable vision for America. That could all change with what happens after his presidency.

This is still early days but Donald Trump could in fact win the Republican nomination and go on to become president. If that happens and his governance is anything like the xenophobic, hateful, and delusional ranting that his campaign rhetoric has been, we will have an America that may never recover from that presidency. The shining light on the hill will be extinguished and America will join the ranks of other once great nations like those that are doddering around in Europe. In that newly unstable world, all of us will look longingly at the Obama years on how things were and yearn for their return. Therein lies Obama’s hope to go down in history as a great and memorable president. His reign will seem an era of calm and good sense and civility.

The Nobel committee may well give him another Nobel prize, again not so much for his accomplishments but as a tribute to what he is not.