One cannot grasp eight years of a historic presidency in eight minutes of talk. It's like trying to catch lightning in a bottle. Still... At the equivalent point on the 8th year of his presidency eight years ago, on a farewell visit to Baghdad, President George W. Bush had two shoes thrown at him by an indignant Iraqi journalist—a symbolic act applauded around the world (which also made a fortune for the Turkish maker of those shoes, the demand for which went through the roof). President Barack Obama, by contrast, on a recent farewell visit to Canada, was applauded by its Parliament, who chanted in wishful unison: “four more years!”Back then Bush's approval rating was in the low 30s; Obama's is now in the 50s. Just as Obama benefited by the contrast to the global calamity that was the presidency of his predecessor, so now he rises in comparison to his would-be successor, a man whose campaign of fear and loathing has in turn generated fear and loathing among many around the world, astonished by the rise of a figure unabashedly unleashing such nativist, racist, and fascist impulses: the anti-Obama, the leading “birther” who sought incessantly for years to delegitimize him. Poetic justice: The rise of Trump has led to the revival of Obama (and possibly, when all is said and done, to the reviling of Trump). In 2008 Obama's election was met by global elation—people from Sierra Leone to Cuba danced in the streets; and if the world could have voted, Obama would have won in a worldwide landslide, 3 to 1. The global expectations were so high that just months into his first year in office he was prematurely bestowed the Nobel Peace Prize—a grand projection of the hopes of others for the possibilities he might bring to a world ensnared by war and intractable conflicts. But today we are not “grading on a curve” in this preliminary appraisal of President Obama's potential legacy, focusing on his impact on international relations, with particular emphasis on his reset of US-Cuba relations. Setting aside the subjective mood of “then,” what is to be made of the objective residue of “now,” looking forward?
