The catastrophe of the Bush presidency was so deep and wide that it sometimes seemed that Obama would never claw out of its shadow. He also frequently hurt his own cause, in particular by clinging to his image as a bridge-building uniter even when it was clear that the minority party was actively using his bipartisan overtures to slow and defeat his agenda.
But as we enter the twilight of the Obama era, he can boast numerous achievements: an economy slowly but surely approaching full employment; a landmark health care law that has produced clear results for millions of people; a financial regulatory regime that, while watered down, is starting to shrink Wall Street; and a patchwork of environmental regulations and bilateral climate change agreements that could finally put the U.S., and possibly the world, in a position to address global warming.
In contrast, Hillary Clinton, who officially announced her campaign for president on Sunday, will not face the same array of challenges should she be elected — which is another way of saying that she will have fewer opportunities to remake the political landscape in her image. Her candidacy is not a campaign for change, but a call for going onwards and upwards. Though her team would be loath to admit it, she is essentially running for Barack Obama's third term.
But there is still plenty for Clinton and the Democratic Party to do — and plenty of space to leave her mark.
More Perspectives
Michael Brendan Dougherty
This election is God's judgment on us
Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry
Against Hillary
First, simply by virtue of being elected, Clinton could consolidate the gains that Democrats have made in the Obama era. Her liberal detractors like to say that she is virtually indistinguishable from likely Republican opponent Jeb Bush, but that misses the fact that a President Bush would be under enormous pressure to roll back Obama's hard-won reforms in the areas of health care, financial regulation, and the environment. At the very least, Clinton would face pressure from her party and her base to protect those reforms. Her veto power alone could entrench progressive priorities for a minimum of four years, which would be crucial in making them intractable elements of the American polity. That alone would make her a good president.
WM BARR . =ABSOLUTE TRASH 