To understand Obama's legacy walk in his shoes on Day One [View all]

[Parker DeWitt]

What Obama faced on Day One

WASHINGTON — We try to assess Barack Obama’s legacy by squinting into the murky future — debating the durability of his policies and programs, wondering what the new president will do to them.

But when we measure the 44th president’s accomplishments, do we recall where and when he started? Remember what the nation and world were like the day he took office? Imagine what might have been without him?

In his farewell this week, Obama himself cited the advice of Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird: “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view. Until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.'’

So go back to the hours before Obama became president. Walk in his shoes, sit in his pew, ride in his limousine. Then, judge.

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