Clinton's third term.

• Author: Glastris, Paul
• Position: Editor's Note - Editorial

The cover story in this issue, by yours truly, argues that Barack Obama has accomplished so much in his first term (health care reform, the stimulus, turning around Detroit--the list is long, and starts on page 42) that he stands to go down in history as a great or near-great president. But it also notes that most Americans don't see him that way, and hence might not be inclined to give him the second term he needs to secure that legacy in the eyes of history.

There are numerous reasons for this disconnect between Obama's deeds and reputation. A big one, certainly, is his failure to make good on his campaign promise to "change Washington."

Different audiences have different ideas about what this promise entailed. Moderates and independents hoped it meant overcoming the partisan bickering and petty gamesmanship in Washington; those on the left hoped it meant a new era of FDR-like liberalism. In either case, Obama didn't or couldn't bring it off, and people are disappointed.

Indeed, a case can be made that what he delivered was not change in this sense at all but a kind of continuity--a third Clinton term. As everyone knows, the architects of his economic policy, Larry Summers, Tim Geithner, and Peter Orszag, are all ex-Clinton guys. The fact that Obama hired them and followed their advice is the chief complaint of many liberals about the president. I argue in the article that the administration's economic policies are more effective than the critics contend. But the point stands that those policies are fundamentally Clintonesque.

The Clinton stamp is in fact all over Obama's presidency. All three of his chiefs of staff--Rahm Emanuel, Bill Daley, Jack Lew--served in the Clinton administration, as did both of Joe Biden's (Ron Klain, Bruce Reed). One of Clinton's former chiefs of staff, Leon Panetta, is now Obama's defense secretary.

Look deeper into the bureaucracy, too, and you'll see the Clinton imprint. One of Obama's biggest education achievements to date is kicking banks out of the college loan program and providing students loans directly from the federal government. The policy will save $67 billion over the next decade, $36 billion of which will fund expanded Pell Grants. The person who led this effort is Obama's former deputy undersecretary of education Robert Shireman. But it was Clinton who created the direct lending program itself, with the help of a young White House aide, Robert Shireman.

Obama's biggest achievement in national...