When Barack Obama was elected president in 2008, it marked an historic first.

My next door neighbour, an African-American, raised his fist in celebration when he saw me the next day. His jubilation reflected the African-American mood throughout the country.

Among many progressive whites, Latinos, Asians and others, there was also a feeling of hope that a corner had been turned, away from the war and reaction of the Bush administration.

Now that we are into the second term of Obama’s presidency, a balance sheet is in order.

Failing workers

The reaction of the Bush White House to the financial and economic crisis that began in 2007 was to pour huge amounts of money into failing banks. The transition to the Obama administration in 2009 was seamless.

While the capitalists were bailed out and their profits rebounded, a wave of austerity was unleashed on workers.

Obama made some noises about putting people to work rebuilding the nation’s crumbling infrastructure, but the results have been meagre.

Government employment has been cut sharply and social services have been slashed. Reforms like those enacted under the New Deal in the 1930s have been rejected.

Attacks on unions, both in the public and private sectors have intensified.

The net result has been that working people feel that the recession never ended. New structural inequities have arisen, such as long term unemployment and high youth unemployment.

Failing Blacks and Latinos

Blacks have seen their situation deteriorate the most. While Obama has spoken out against some particularly egregious acts of racist violence, such as the murder of Trayvon Martin, there have been very few attempts to roll back institutionalised racism.

His policies also have done nothing to increase the employment prospects for or the wages of the poorest. Many Black youth are growing up without the prospect of stable employment, a blight that will have repercussions far into the future.

Many of these issues affect Latinos too, although Blacks bear the brunt because historically they are the most oppressed of the oppressed nationalities.

There were hopes that Obama would fight for immigration reform. Discrimination against undocumented Latino migrants is rife, but others, especially Asians, are affected too.

Obama did reduce the number of deportations of people who came to the US as children. But his administration has deported far more people – almost 2 million – than any previous government. This has earned him the title of “Deporter in Chief” among militant young Latinos.

Failing on war

Obama inherited the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, but moves to scale down US troop numbers were already afoot. He continued in this direction, finally withdrawing all combat troops from Iraq when the puppet government refused to give the remaining forces immunity from prosecution if they committed crimes.

Obama initially escalated the war in Afghanistan. The bombing of Libya produced a catastrophe. And drone strikes in Pakistan have escalated significantly, killing many civilians.

The majority of US citizens have turned against overseas invasions, greatly diminishing Washington’s military options, for example in Syria and Ukraine. Even Obama’s most hawkish critics can do little but gnash their teeth.

The US military remains the most powerful the world has ever seen. This power lurks in the background as Washington under Obama continues to further its imperialist interests around the globe.

Failing on truth

When Obama took office he promised “new transparency” in government. Edward Snowden has exposed that promise to be a monstrous lie.

Obama branded Snowden a traitor and brought charges against him under the Espionage Act. The president has used the act more times than all previous administrations combined, and his term is only two-thirds of the way through.

Under his watch, Julian Assange remains stranded in the Ecuadorian Embassy, under threat of deportation and prosecution in the US, probably under the same Act.

Assange’s crime was to expose some of the US’s dirty secrets and war crimes. WikiLeaks released a trove of material documenting US war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Obama’s military tried and convicted Chelsea Manning for her role in uncovering those crimes. She was sentenced to 35 years in an army dungeon, and denied medical procedures for her desired sex change.

When he took office, Obama refused to investigate the use of torture, “special renditions” and other illegal acts of the CIA and other agencies in the “war on terror”.

He is currently in a tussle with his loyal lieutenant Senator Dianne Feinstein, over how much of the CIA’s criminal activities should be made public.

Failing on health

Obama’s “great” achievement has been his health insurance program. It got off to an ignominious start last October when the “Obamacare” computer program failed.

The program failed because it was extremely complicated, and it was complicated because the Obamacare law was riddled with caveats and clauses demanded by the insurance industry.

Now the bugs in the program appear to be fixed, but the basic problem remains: Obamacare is a swindle to consolidate the private insurance companies’ hold on health care.

The only way it can work is if young and healthy people are forced to buy into it. So beginning in April, young and healthy people will be fined if they don’t. About the only thing that can be said in the program’s defence is that it is better than the Republican’s proposal to do nothing.

None of these problems would exist if universal government health care were offered, something Obama ruled out from the beginning.

The US health system will remain at the bottom of the advanced capitalist countries, and tens of millions will remain uninsured.

A failure

Obama has been a very good president from the viewpoint of the US ruling class. But for workers, the poor, minorities and whistleblowers, he has been a clear failure.