2016 Elections

[Cato]

History will have to judge whether Obama was 

1. ...a tragically naive idealist who thought he could heal the divides of the nation if he was just nice enough, 
   
2. ....an inept product of the Peter Principle (promoted up to a level beyond his abilities, brilliant at state level politics but in over his head at the Federal level) or 
   
3. ...an ingenious 5th column agent secretly working for the Republican Party. 
   

I'm not enough of a conspiracy theorist to actually embrace #3 but you know, it would explain a lot. After all, he took a roaring progressive movement that gave him the White House and overwhelming majorities in both houses facing a GOP that was disgraced after the economic and foreign policy disasters and within two years he managed to thoroughly marginalize and demoralize liberals, gave the GOP room to regroup and revive and covered up for the abuses of the previous administration. He couldn't have done a better job if he really was acting as a 5th columnist. 

Sadly, #2 is the only viable option here. In fact, Obama's means of getting into the Illinois legislature and his abysmal record once there makes the 'brilliant at state level' caveat non-existent.

The above is simply an observation and cannot be used to predict achievement in office; Lincoln immediately comes to mind as a President with a similar lack of traditional qualifications. Obama will be remembered as another Chester A. Arthur. So much potential, so much opportunity, yet nothing. Sad really.