WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama has under 100 days left in his presidency.

While voters will elect his successor next month, it’s also a reminder of all the accomplishments from the last eight years. Several of those accomplishments came from ideas from his platform in 2008.

Of course, as in any presidency, many ideas, laws and policies come after an election, and plenty of what was accomplished in the past eight years were not on Obama’s initial platform.

Here are some of the Obama’s initial platform ideas that ended up being put into action.

Fair Pay “Lilly Ledbetter” Act

It was the first bill Obama signed into law as president, which he did on Jan. 29, 2009. This act promoted fair pay for all Americans regardless of gender.

Universal Health Care

Perhaps the most controversial of his initial policies, the Affordable Care Act was signed into law on May 23, 2010, after passing through both U.S. Senate and House of Representatives.

Expanded stem cell research

In March 2009, Obama issued Executive Order 13505, which removed barriers in “responsible scientific” stem cell research. Obama stated in the order that research involving human embryonic stem cells could lead to advancements in treating disabling diseases and conditions. It’s another one of the topics brought up in his original 2008 campaign.

Repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell" policy

Obama did not announce his support for same-sex marriage until 2012, but he did support repealing the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy in the U.S. military in 2008. The policy had been in place since 1994 and both barred discrimination against closeted gays, lesbians or bisexuals, but also barred openly gay members of the military. On Dec. 22, 2010, Obama signed the repeal against the policy.

Economic Stimulus Plan

During the 2008 election, both Obama and Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, supported in 2008 a $700 billion stimulus package for the economy. On Feb. 17, 2009, Obama signed the Recovery and Reinvestment Act into law, which was to “jumpstart our economy, save and create millions of jobs, and put a down payment on addressing long-neglected challenges so that our country can thrive in the 21st century,” according to the White House.

The bill was later adjusted from $787 million to about $831 billion spent from 2009 to 2019.

The U.S. unemployment rate was 6.8 percent during the presidential election in November 2008. That number jumped to 7.8 percent by January 2009, when Obama was sworn in, and rose up to 10 percent in October 2009 — the highest in Obama’s presidency. It has since steadily declined and was 5 percent as of September 2016, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

He also passed the Dodd-Frank Act in 2010, which tightened regulations in the mortgage industry.

Relations with Cuba

In 2008, Obama’s policies were to not lift the U.S.’s embargo on Cuba unless certain conditions were met, but as CNN pointed out that year, Obama had stated he was “looking to normalize relations at some point.”

In December 2014, Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro announced that those discussions between the two countries had begun. The U.S. Embassy in Havana reopened in July 2015, as did the Cuban Embassy in Washington, D.C., and steps to normalize the relationship between the countries has grown further since.

Ending the war in Iraq

In 2008, Obama stated he planned on removing U.S. troops from Iraq by 2010. Though the timetable was off by a year, Obama announced the ending of the war and the removal of troops in October 2011.

However, even after the war ended, U.S. forces have returned to Iraq. In 2014, U.S. forces returned to the country to help train Iraqi and Kurdish forces in their fight against ISIS. The initial number of 1,500 troops in 2014 has since risen to more than 4,000.

Related topics