President Barack Obama - An Overview Of The Incumbent

President Barrack Obama has been in the White House for three years. With the 2012 election on the horizon, and President Obama up for re-election, his resume could use some review.

The biggest issue facing Obama at the start of his first term was the failing economy and the demand for more jobs. In the past three years the national unemployment rate has fallen from its peak of 10% to 8.5% but this is still the highest rate since 1983. According to Bloomberg. com, the U.S. economy grew by 2.8% in 2011. In that time, Obama created jobs and eluded the previous forecast "double-dip recession," despite Republicans like Mitt Romney claiming the growth was not quick enough.

Many people also seem unclear as to just how the President stopped the recession and turned it around to create economic growth. First, Obama rescued the U.S. auto industry by extending emergency rescue loans to U.S. automakers General Motors and Chrysler. Part of the loan agreement was for Chrysler and GM to cut labor costs and to overhaul their business model. GM and Chrysler have since repaid their loans and rehired workers.

Next, Obama passed the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, which set up a

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to protect consumers from unfair financial practices. This act also works to hold Wall Street accountable and prevent a domino effect economic crisis from happening again, such as the housing bubble bursting and causing a chain reaction of defaults and credit line revocations. This means that taxpayers should not have to bail out Wall Street and banks again in the future.

In the President's State of the Union address, Obama focused on continued economic and job growth through continued support for small business loans, specifically for those businesses that have higher wages and want to create jobs. The President wants to create tax incentives for businesses to return to the U.S. and prevent job loss as a result of outsourcing. He also wants to create a bill that does not let students drop out of high school, and has laid down an ultimatum to universities and colleges to keep their costs down or federal funding might be cut. Obama also wants to more strictly regulate insider trading in U.S. government to prevent the personal interests of congressional members and lobbyists representing corporate concerns from making laws that only intend to benefit an interested and small minority. President Obama has laid out his plan for the future; in November, we will see who is listening.