1) He may have saved the country from going into a second depression. We were in an ugly recession when he took over. Malls were uncharacteristically empty Christmas of '08. The economy started to improve almost immediately after he took office. We were out of the recession later in 2009. The economic numbers are far better today than when he took office.
He basically followed the same "too-big-to-fail" bailout policy as his predecessor. The recession had bottomed out by the time he was inaugurated. Recovery growth rates have been slower than after previous recessions. The middle class has continued to lose ground.
2) He killed Bin Laden. Bush couldn't even locate him, and with all of Bush's efforts in Iraq, he'd pretty much let Bin Laden run free. Obama kept the hunt on Bin Laden and eventually got him.
The hunt for Bin Laden began immediately after 9/11, under Bush. It culminated under Obama. Of course Obama continued the hunt--was he going to let Bin Laden go scot-free?
3) First black president. That is a huge accomplishment in a nation with such a history of racism. Think of all the black people in America who never thought they'd see a black president. His election was certainly a magical moment in U.S. history based on that alone.
All it proves is that a black president can be just as incompetent as his white predecessor.
