If Americans can discard their prejudices and evaluate Barack Obama's presidency based on facts, not misinformation, they will discover a presidency far more successful than many would care to admit.

Let us consider what has happened since 2009, the year Obama took office.

In January 2009, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which plummeted in the economic collapse that began during the presidency of George W. Bush, stood at around 7,950. Now it is over 17,000. Unemployment, which reached 10 percent in October 2009, has fallen to 5.4 percent. In 2009, the United States imported 11.2 million barrels of oil a day. Today, it imports fewer than 4.8 million. Yes, the price of gas increased during Obama's presidency, but now it has dropped to 2009 levels.

In obtaining passage of the Affordable Care Act, labeled Obamacare, Obama achieved a goal sought by Democratic presidents since Eisenhower, providing the universal health care coverage long provided in Europe and many other countries.

The president used aggressive enforcement of the Clean Air Act of 1970 to curtail soot, smog, mercury and carbon dioxide. Critics argued that the United States was sacrificing its ability to compete. This is not true. Every Western European country is more environmentally responsible than we are, and some of their economies perform nearly as well or better than does our economy.

Obama's immigration policies have also generated controversy. The contention that extending legal rights to undocumented immigrants would hurt the U.S. economy is wrong. Most economists agree that undocumented immigrants help the economy in both the short and long run. The claim that accepting millions of undocumented immigrants will destroy our unique American culture is nonsense. We are an amalgamation of cultures. People do not come here for government help, they come because of the belief that if they apply themselves in this country they can improve their lives. President Obama recognizes this.

Concerning foreign policy, the critics deride Obama for not more strongly backing the revolutionary movements that sprang up in the Middle East in 2011. They ridicule him for not deterring Vladimir Putin's actions against Ukraine and for refusing immediate aid to Iraq when that country found itself beleaguered by ISIS.

The proper moderate approach

His moderate approach is the right one. The challenges the revolutionaries faced in the Middle East were so complex that there was little Washington could have done to assist. Four years later, none of the new regimes, with the exception of Tunisia, has fared well. With respect to Ukraine, Europe and the United States have applied enough economic pressure to force Putin to re-examine his bravado. As for Iraq, instead of inserting thousands of U.S. troops to do what Iraqi forces should have done, Obama sent enough air support to contain ISIS's march. And let us not forget his decision to reverse our Cuban policy. It had not worked for 50 years.

So what are we to make of our president?

Though foolish conspiracy theories persist among some, we know that he was born in the United States and that he is not a Muslim. In any event, our Constitution treats religion as a personal matter.

It is wrong to denigrate our president because his full name is Barack Hussein Obama. Not long ago the Irish, Italians, Poles or Spaniards also faced discrimination and ridicule for their names and their differences. Now many of them lead us.

Obama is neither a communist nor a socialist. He does not believe that the government should own all means of production and land, or large-scale industries, which are prerequisites for being a communist or a socialist. He believes that the government should help people in need to have access to health care, food, education and housing. That makes him a "quasi-socialist," just like most of us. If you think I am wrong, ask yourself how you would react if the government ended such socialist programs as Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and federal crop insurance.

We are better off today than we were when he became president. Despite the opposition his administration faced, the economy has improved, millions more people have health insurance, stronger environmental protections are in place, and there have been no new wars involving American troops.

I do wish our recovery had moved faster, but I don't think it could have, given the enormous domestic and international challenges the country faced when Obama took office in 2009.

Yet, despite the challenges and the intense political rancor, Obama kept his composure, never lowering himself to his opponent's level of pettiness, while managing to bring about meaningful change.

Alex Roberto Hybel is the Susan Eckert Lynch Professor of Government and International Relations at Connecticut College. His two new books, published in 2014, are titled: "U.S. Foreign Policy Decision Making - From Truman to Kennedy", and "U.S. Foreign Policy Decision Making - From Kennedy to Obama."