Spinning With Obama

As Americans prepare to turn the page on Barack Obama’s presidency, the rousing 2008 campaign that started it all is taking on a nostalgic glow. None of the contenders vying to succeed Obama has conjured anything like the fervor that he sparked seven years ago; his bolt-from-the-blue crusade seems even more extraordinary now than it did then. At the same time, the elusiveness of the post-partisanship he hoped to cultivate and the persistence of the racial conflict he vowed to transcend have left many supporters wistful or embittered.