Obama's 2015: Big-time scores for America

One advantage of being part of the White House press corps is getting invited to one of the many White House Christmas parties. For reporters, that includes the additional advantage of standing in line to get your photo taken with the president and first lady.

You don't get much time with the commander in chief: maybe 10 seconds before it's: "Smile. Click. You're outta here. Next!" So everybody plans ahead of time just what they want to say to the most powerful person on the planet in the brief time allotted them.

In December 2014, just before he began his final and, for many presidents, fateful two years in office, I greeted him with: "Mr. President, don't let anybody tell you you're a lame duck." To which he immediately replied: "I'm not acting like one, am I?" Indeed, not. He wasn't then, and he isn't now.

In fact, at his last news conference of the year, on Dec. 18, before traveling to San Bernardino to visit with families of the victims of this month's mass shooting and then on to Hawaii, the president actually took a victory lap of sorts, crowing about his success this year, the first of two supposedly "lame-duck" years. He topped that with a video talking about, David Letterman-like, his "Top Ten Accomplishments of 2015." Admittedly, it is an impressive list.

On the foreign-policy front, Obama first cited the Iran nuclear deal, unveiled on July 14, which, if it holds, will prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon for at least 15 years and pave the way for Iran's assistance in destroying ISIS. He also took credit, rightfully so, for the start of normalizing relations with Cuba, announced last Dec. 17. Under relaxed rules, Americans are flocking to Cuba as the hottest new Caribbean destination.

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His greatest foreign-policy achievement was the climate change accord reached in Paris earlier this month by 195 nations. After 21 attempts, it's the first time all nations, large and small, developed and developing, both recognized the reality of global warming and agreed on a plan to reduce emission of greenhouse gases. At previous summits, the United States was an outsider. This time, the United States led the way, bringing China and India on board.

On the home front, Obama could point to a record 16.4 million Americans now enrolled in Obamacare, either through state or federal exchanges, expanded Medicare, or young people staying on their parents' plan. The Affordable Care Act survived another challenge before the Supreme Court, as did marriage equality. On June 26, prompted by the Obama administration, the court ruled that the Constitution required all states to recognize same-sex marriage.

Adding to Obama's good news, the economy continued to tick toward full recovery, with 69 straight months of positive job growth, 13.7 million new private sector jobs, and unemployment down to 5 percent. For Obama, but not for labor unions, another big win was congressional approval of fast-track authority to negotiate the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal (TPP) with 12 Pacific Rim countries, sealed in October.

No wonder President Obama left Washington with a bounce in his step. It's a surprisingly strong scorecard for any president's next-to-last year in office – and even more impressive considering that, except for the TPP, he did it all with zero help from Congress, and often with their all-out opposition.

Obama's successes of 2015 don't make up for the disappointments experienced during his first six years in office. Among other shortcomings, progressives still feel let down over his rejection of a single-payer health plan, or even a public plan option as part of Obamacare; his embrace of NSA's massive domestic spying program; his vast expansion of the use of killer drones; his extension of the war in Afghanistan; or his failure to achieve comprehensive immigration reform or new gun safety legislation. One Democratic member of Congress recently told me: "One-half of Americans hate Obama; the other half are disappointed in him."

But 2015 was a welcome change of pace when Obama, freed from the burden of ever having to run for political office again, clearly decided to go for broke – and scored big time. That's not the end of it, either. Obama closed his news conference with a determined pledge: "In 2016, I'm going to leave it out all on the field." The American people deserve no less.