"Powerful:" FOX6 takes a look at President Obama's legacy after 8 years in the White House
WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama came to the White House with the nation in the depths of the Great Recession. Nearly 150,000 people in Wisconsin were losing their jobs. It was a crisis.
WASHINGTON, DC - DECEMBER 16: U.S. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference in the Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House December 16, 2016 in Washington, DC. In what could be the last press conference of his presidency, afterward
President Obama moved two automakers through bankruptcy, tried to restart the home lending market, and pushed through an $800 billion stimulus.
The unemployment rate fell from a high of 10 percent to 4.7 percent nationally. His allies say it's his legacy.
"That was a huge turnaround. People underestimate that. I think they don't get the full grasp of it or we just have short-term memory," said Fred Royal, president of the Milwaukee branch of the NAACP said.
President Obama's signature law was the Affordable Care Act -- also known as Obamacare. 234,000 Wisconsinites are getting health insurance this year -- many for the first time.
Insurance companies can no longer deny coverage for a pre-existing condition, but costs are climbing. The average premium of a Wisconsin plan jumped 16 percent this year alone.
"I knew none of the promises could be kept and they haven't been," said Incumbent Republican Senator Ron Johnson.
Ron Johnson
Senator Johnson ran for office in 2010, the year Congress passed the health care law.
Johnson's come-from-behind re-election in November, coupled with President-elect Donald Trump's victory, gave Republicans a path to repeal the law.
"Across the board, President Obama, if you look at the results of his presidency, he should have probably low approval ratings from my standpoint," said Johnson.
Barack Obama
Yet President Obama leaves office with 52 percent of Wisconsin voters approving of the job he's done, according to a Marquette University Law School poll conducted late in 2016. He won the state twice -- and it was never close.
For his success and support in Wisconsin, his party has suffered. On his watch, Democrats lost the Wisconsin Legislature, the Governor's Office, seats in Congress, and a Senate seat.
"Maybe that's not all on Obama's table for having done that, but certainly the party is in worse shape in the nation as a whole today than it was in 2009 as he came into office," said Marquette Law School Poll Director Charles Franklin.
During President Obama's second term, a series of police shootings of black men touched off violent unrest in several large cities. Milwaukee was not immune.
At the end of his term, some questioned why President Obama hasn't done more on this front. But Royal said critics are looking past other policies that benefited the central city -- and how he's given hope to a new generation.
"Oh, it's huge. You've got folks who have grown up that all they've seen is a black man, woman and children in the White House. That's powerful," said Royal.
Friday, January 20th, President Obama leaves office after President-Elect Trump is sworn in during his inauguration in D.C.