The Obama presidency: Mark Gilbert takes a looks back at the challenges and accomplishments of the present US administration.

• Author: Gilbert, Mark
• Position: Essay

I am honoured to serve as President Obamas personal representative to New Zealand and Samoa, and proud to count him as a friend. Eleven years ago my wife Nancy and I were invited to dinner with the then junior senator from Illinois, Barack Obama. He discussed his view of the world, and we were so impressed with his nuanced approach, as well as his depth and breadth of knowledge. I knew that he would be the right person at the right time to lead our country. I witnessed his calm temperament, his measured judgment and his deep intelligence. Few predicted the enormous challenges he would have to overcome (and I am not referring to Congress), but I knew his personal traits would serve him and our country well. I think a look back at his challenges and accomplishments show I was right. In March, while back in Washington for our annual ambassadorial meetings, the president invited a few of us over to the White House, where I mentioned to him that he had accomplished most of the things we talked about before and during his run for the White House.

President Obama took office in the midst of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. We had our worst economic performance in 60 years, with GDP contracting 9.8 per cent. Four million Americans lost their jobs before the president's inauguration; another four million joined their ranks before his policies could begin to take effect. That is nearly twice the population of New Zealand out of work within a few months.

One of the president's major achievements has to be saving the United States and the global economy from a major depression --and building the foundation for a more fair, flexible and sustainable economy. He knew that he would not be able to work on the rest of his agenda without getting the economy back on track. Since he took office, the United States has had the longest streak of private sector job growth in its history--75 consecutive months. More than 14 million new jobs have been created. The unemployment rate is 4.7 per cent--down from a high of 10 per cent--and April had the lowest unemployment claims in 43 years. All of this was done while cutting our deficit by almost 75 per cent.

You occasionally hear talk that Americas economy is in decline. Anyone claiming this is simply not looking at the numbers, which unequivocally show that Americas economy is the largest, strongest and most stable but sustainable in the world. Since the global financial crisis, the United States has put more people to work than Europe, Japan and every other advanced economy combined. So how did we get here from the edge of a total economic collapse?

In early 2009 every American was feeling the impact of the massive recession; the floor was falling out from under our feet. The president and his advisors knew that immediate, bold action was needed to stem the crisis. Within a month of taking office, he signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act into law. This was more than a short-term fix. The president addressed the root causes of the global financial crisis to help put the economy on the path of a durable and equitable recovery. The Recovery Act injected billions of dollars into a frozen financial system and brought about long-term reforms promoting economic growth and stability.

At the height of the crisis, the American auto industry was shedding jobs by the hundreds-of-thousands. We faced the real possibility that General Motors and Chrysler--iconic car companies --would close down and lay off at least a million people. President Obama took the unprecedented step of providing massive loans. Not everyone was in agreement, and many said, 'let them go bankrupt'. As history shows the president was right: the companies were saved--and the loans were paid back before they were due. GM and Chrysler have become stronger than ever. As a condition for support the president demanded they retool and build more fuel-efficient cars...