Uploaded December 2014 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
The promise of the Obama presidency was a promise of transformation: Identity politics would triumph over partisan politics and power abroad, and a charismatic leader would "rebrand" America, restoring public confidence and achieving policy success. Six years later, Obama's approval ratings are low and his worst failings are in foreign policy, where he had raised the highest hopes. What went wrong and what is there to do about it?
Charles Lane is on the editorial board for The Washington Post and is a regular non-conservative on the Fox News Channel. He was formerly a foreign correspondent for Newsweek at its Berlin bureau and the editor of The New Republic (1997-99), and he is the author of The Day Freedom Died: The Colfax Massacre, the Supreme Court, and the Betrayal of Reconstruction (2008).
Presented by the Program on Constitutional Government on October 17, 2014.
The promise of the Obama presidency was a promise of transformation: Identity politics would triumph over partisan politics and power abroad, and a charismatic leader would "rebrand" America, restoring public confidence and achieving policy success. Six years later, Obama's approval ratings are low and his worst failings are in foreign policy, where he had raised the highest hopes. What went wrong and what is there to do about it?
Charles Lane is on the editorial board for The Washington Post and is a regular non-conservative on the Fox News Channel. He was formerly a foreign correspondent for Newsweek at its Berlin bureau and the editor of The New Republic (1997-99), and he is the author of The Day Freedom Died: The Colfax Massacre, the Supreme Court, and the Betrayal of Reconstruction (2008).
Presented by the Program on Constitutional Government on October 17, 2014.
