That Barack Obama had aimed at the presidency for some time was common knowledge to those who came within his orbit, whether at Harvard Law School, the state Senate, the 2004 democratic national convention where he made the epic speech which propelled him to global fame, or during his short U.S. Senate tenure.
“My attitude about something like the presidency is that you don’t want to just be the president,” he told me. “You want to change the country. You want to make a unique contribution. You want to be a great president,” he said in a 2006 interview.
Obama described visiting the Washington Hilton and walking down a long corridor decorated with pictures of all America’s presidents. “You go through, and you think, who are these guys? There are, what, maybe 10 presidents in our history out of 40-something who you can truly say led the country? And then there are 30 who just kind of did their best. And so, I guess my point is, just being the president is not a good way of thinking about it.”
As his final days in office wound down, it was bittersweet, perhaps even poignant to remember that bar Obama set for himself that summer afternoon and wondering whether he feels that he cleared it. Will Obama be remembered as a top-10 president -- one who changed the country? Or as one of the perhaps admirable but not-quite-transformational others?
During his 2008 race against Hillary Clinton in 2008, Obama articulated the same distinction in a way certain to annoy her and her husband by saying that “Ronald Reagan changed the trajectory of America in a way that, you know, Richard Nixon did not and in a way that Bill Clinton did not.” Obama aspired to be a kind of liberal Reagan who would not just change policy but embody the emergence of a diverse and progressive society.
From a nonpartisan point of view, even at this initial stage so close to his time in office (and with neither the benefit of hindsight nor classified source material) a preliminary assessment could make the case that Obama’s substantive accomplishments are both durable and likely to survive the Republican reality show now encamped in 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
Obama’s handling of the 2008 financial crisis, the passage of the Affordable Care Act, and the Paris Accord on greenhouse gas reduction, as well as less heralded changes around education, financial regulation, and economic distribution are all consequential achievements, however in question their durability. After votes in the House and Senate last week, Obamacare appears to be headed for straight-up repeal rather than face-saving modification (although with Trump, who knows?). During the campaign, Obama said that if Trump were to be elected, eight years of accomplishment would go out the window. Afterward, Obama put it rather differently, telling the New Yorker that he had done “seventy or seventy-five per cent” of what he intended. “Maybe fifteen per cent of that gets rolled back, twenty per cent, but there’s still a lot of stuff that sticks.”
Optimism? Self-delusion? Hope?
The larger question is the one Obama pointed to in his comments contrasting Reagan with Clinton. “Reagan put us on a fundamentally different path because the country was ready for it,” he said. To count as transformative, a president needs to synthesize the moment and mood of the country. Where Reagan channeled disenchantment with overweening government, Obama symbolized America’s transformation into a multiracial country, one that is still very much in progress (and painfully so).
That demographic change is inevitable, but Obama was a precocious avatar. America remains 62 percent white, according to the Census Bureau. Not until mid-century will minorities become the majority. It can also be persuasively argued that the headwinds Obama faced were mostly racial blowback. In many cases, Republican politicians and white voters abandoned policies they had long supported once they were endorsed by a black president. Then there were other forces abroad in the land as well, all of which culminated in the election of Trump.
Given the racially tinged opposition he faced, it’s hard to make the case that Obama could have accomplished a great deal more either by being tougher or more gentle. Yet for someone who saw himself as a political bridge, the inability to produce any durable consensus must count as a tremendous disappointment. His faith in transcending partisanship, in the face of all evidence, stands as both inspirational and somewhat naïve. Obama called his pre-presidential book, 'The Audacity of Hope.' What cruel irony then that Trump represents a kind of angry hope over the bland experience of Hillary Clinton.
Ten years ago, Obama made it clear that establishing universal health care should be his party’s highest priority and that he worried about the lack of economic opportunity driving racial polarization. Listening to the powerful farewell address he delivered in Chicago last week, one was struck the remarkable consistency of his views and his approach. Despite the ways in which his worst fears have been borne out, he has remained rock steady in his calm application of reason, his respect for opponents who haven’t much respected him, and his methodical pursuit of common ground. Obama’s absence of bitterness is remarkable. He leaves a legacy of integrity, eloquence, and patient commitment in this uncertain hour of American politics.
At the very least, few partisans could disagree on one thing: Barack Obama was a gentleman to the end.
Thank you sir, for your service.