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Article 1.
The Daily Beast
Obama’s True Claim to Fame
Michael Tomasky

August 23, 2011 -- Barack Obama hasn’t been much of a domestic-
policy president from nearly anyone’s point of view. And it’s a little
hard to picture how he might ever be seen as such—that is to say,
even if he’s reelected, he’ll probably have a Republican House or
Senate (or both) that will thwart him at every turn, so the best he’ll be
able to say is that he presided over a slow and very difficult economic
recovery, which presumably will finally happen by January 2017. But
foreign policy could be a completely different story. Here one can see
how he might become not just a good but a great foreign-policy
president. Yes, of course, let’s stipulate: the war isn’t actually, you
know, over. And even after it is, Libya could descend into chaos or
extremism or both (although it is heartening to read that the National
Transitional Council, the recognized new governing body, apparently
has detailed governance plans in place). So could Egypt, and Tunisia,
and so on and so on. Lots of things could, can, and undoubtedly will
go wrong. Let’s also stipulate that Obama did not drape himself only
in glory on Libya. The administration’s statement in June that the
conflict wasn’t under the purview of the War Powers Act because
bombing didn’t constitute “hostilities” was ridiculous. And many
critics reasonably felt back in March that Obama was a little slow to
pull the trigger on the intervention (I didn’t share that view).
All that said, the administration has already handled a lot of these
changes well (and in the face of absolutely constant know-it-all
criticism). One of the best things an American administration can do
when big changes are afoot somewhere in the world is stay out of the
way and not act as if we can will an outcome just because we’re

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