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Accomplished and Embattled:
Understanding Obama's Presidency
THEDA SKOCPOL
LAWRENCE R. JACOBS
Hope soared as Barack Obama and his beaming family strode
onto the stage in Chicago's Grant Park on 5 November 2008. The election
night mood was accentuated by tears of affirmation streaming down the face
of longtime civil rights leader Jesse Jackson and lifted by graciousness from
defeated GOP candidate John McCain, who congratulated the nation's first
African American president-elect for having achieved a great thing for him-
self and for his country. Only a day after a bruising election, two thirds of
Americans described themselves as optimistic and proud after Obama's victory.'
Most Americans yearned for a reduction in partisan bitterness and for united
efforts to cope with a deepening economic crisis and ensure opportunity for all.
How different things are in 2012, as President Obama serves the last year
of his 2008 term and the nation heads into what is sure to be a bitterly fought,
pivotal election. Hopes for change in Washington, DC and a quick economic
recovery have long since disappeared. The 2010 midterm elections swept into
office right-wing Republicans determined to counter-indeed reverse-all
'USA Today/Gallup Poll, Now, thinking about the outcome of the 2008 presidential election: Do
each of the following describe or not describe your reaction to Barack Obama being elected presi-
dent? How about [optimistic, proud, pessimistic, and afraid]? Polling Report, 5 November 2008,
accessed at http://pollingreport.com/, 21 December 2011.
THEDA SKOCPOL is the Victor S. Thomas Professor of Government and Sociology at Harvard
University, and LAWRENCE R. JACOBS holds the Walter E and Joan Mondale Chair for Political
Studies and serves as Director of the Center for the Study of Politics and Governance in the Hubert
H. Humphrey School at the University of Minnesota, where he is also professor of political science.
Skocpol has recently published The Tea Party and the Remaking of Republican Conservatism (with
Vanessa Williamson), and Jacobs has recently published Class War? What Americans Really Think
About Economic Inequality (with Benjamin I. Page). Together they are the authors of Health Care
Reform and American Politics. This article builds upon their co-edited collection entitled Reaching
for a New Deal: Ambitious Governance, Economic Meltdown, and Polarized Politics in Obama's First
Two Years.
Political Science Quarterly Volume 127 Number 1 2012](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/pclscceqry127&div=1&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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