Deck 19: Barack Obama a Utopian Vision Confronts Political Reality

Question 1

Barack Obama first grabbed national attention when

A) He delivered the keynote address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention
B) He ran for Senate in 2006
C) He ran for President in 2008
D) He ran for President in 2012

Answer 1

A

Question 2

Obama ran against _______ in the 2008 presidential election.

A) George W. Bush
B) John McCain
C) Hillary Clinton
D) Donald Trump

Answer 2

B

Question 3

-This image represents one of the keywords of the Obama campaign,

A) Change
B) Hope
C) Need
D) Together

Answer 3

A

Question 4

-Unusually for a Democrat, Obama won the state of _______ in 2008.

A) California
B) Minnesota
C) Maine
D) Florida

Question 5

Obama's legislative accomplishments during his first two years included

A) A economic stimulus package
B) Banking regulations
C) Healthcare reform
D) All of the above

Question 6

The Affordable Care Act was modeled on

A) The British National Health System
B) The socialist systems of countries like Denmark
C) The Massachusetts healthcare system designed by Mitt Romney
D) Canadian healthcare

Question 7

Republicans took control of Congress in the 2010 midterm elections, driven by a movement calling themselves the

A) Tea Party
B) Moral Majority
C) Contract with America
D) New Right

Question 8

A potential long-term budget deal between the Obama administration and a Republican-controlled Congress was killed by

A) Voter opposition
B) A Tea Party rebellion
C) Personal animosity between Obama and Speaker of the House John Boehner
D) An uprising by progressive Democrats

Question 9

The Occupy movement developed as a protest against

A) Healthcare reform
B) What they saw as Obama's socialist policies
C) Tea Party obstruction of economic reforms
D) Income inequality

Question 10

The Obama administration strategy on Afghanistan was

A) Escalate and exit
B) An immediate troop withdrawal
C) To settle in for the long haul of nation building
D) Increased bombing and simultaneous troop withdrawals

Question 11

Obama chose to take the risk of acting to kill Osama bin Laden

A) Despite the fact that it would alienate Pakistan's government
B) Despite the risk that Bin Laden wouldn't be present
C) Against the advice of many of his aides
D) All of the above

Question 12

The Obama administration pushed for a multilateral agreement with Iran to

A) Open the country up to Western imports
B) Open up another source of oil
C) Prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons
D) Negotiate a treaty between Iran and Israel

Question 13

Before the Arab Spring, America had not challenged the lack of democracy in Egypt because

A) Egyptian president Mubarak had enforced peace agreements with Israel
B) Egypt was a threat to Israeli security
C) Egypt had close ties with US ally Saudi Arabia
D) Egypt was not strategically important to the US

Question 14

The rule of Obama era foreign policy was

A) To fight communism wherever it appeared in the world.
B) To fight terrorists everywhere they sprang up
C) Hostility to Islamic governments
D) To see every situation as different, and seek out an individual answer to each

Question 15

The 2012 presidential election was in many ways a referendum on

A) The state of the economy
B) The character of the candidates
C) The status of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan
D) The Affordable Care Act

Question 16

Obama campaigned against Mitt Romney by

A) Attacking his Mormon beliefs
B) Trying to define him as an uncaring venture capitalist
C) Attacking his record as governor of Massachusetts
D) Supporting his challengers in the Republican primary

Question 17

Romney's biggest weakness in the Republican primary contest was

A) How moderate he was
B) His well-known family problems
C) His right-wing beliefs on social issues
D) His Mormon faith

Question 18

Obama's biggest weakness in 2012 was

A) The state of the economy
B) The ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan
C) His standoffishness
D) His lack of understanding of middle-class issues

Question 19

Obama won Ohio in 2012 thanks to

A) A massive mobilization of volunteers there
B) Allocation of campaign staff and resources in the state
C) Obama's record of saving auto industry jobs there
D) All of the above

Question 20

Technology and social media represented _______ for the Obama campaign in 2012

A) A significant strength
B) A significant weakness
C) An underestimated force
D) Old news