BEFORE YOU CALL HIM A FAILURE, YOU MUST KNOW WHAT HE WAS TRYING TO ACCOMPLISH: Richard Epstein: Barack Obama’s Failed Presidency. “The week after the Fourth of July is a good time to take stock of the presidency of Barack Obama. It is highly unlikely that he will change course in his six remaining months in office, so he will be judged by history on his current record. That record reveals an enormous gap between his grandiose promises and his pitiful performance over the past eight years. . . . The sad truth is that the United States today is weaker economically, more divided socially, and more disrespected across the globe than it was before Obama took office. With few exceptions, he made the wrong choices in all the areas in which he declared the dawn of a new era.”