As many have pointed out, Congressional Republicans wanted to abandon the auto industry and opposed all stimulus. Without congressional Democrats and Obama's leadership we would have entered a prolonged, deepening recession. The only reason we didn't  have a quick recovery is that for the first time since the Great Depression Congress didn't allow or enact direct stimulus to create jobs, which would also have left us, at this time, with a far lower national debt.

The ACA did in fact stop the previous annual double-digit inflation in insurance premiums, and the gradual and increasing inflation has only happened recently. ACA could not have passed Congress without removal of bargaining rights for pharmaceuticals as part of the regulations.

You are right, it was time for the US to have a Black president, or a woman president, or an Hispanic president, or in fact, any decent president.