0:00:08 > 0:00:13The United States, we're told, is where you can live your dream.
0:00:13 > 0:00:15Once it was the future.
0:00:15 > 0:00:18Things happened here first.
0:00:18 > 0:00:21Whatever its troubles, it seemed to be the constantly
0:00:21 > 0:00:28self-reinventing, self-confident, leading edge of today's world.
0:00:28 > 0:00:32Which is why, when Barack Obama was elected four years ago, that seemed
0:00:32 > 0:00:35such a great symbol of everything that was best about America.
0:00:35 > 0:00:39First black President and all those wonderful words
0:00:39 > 0:00:42about hope and change.
0:00:42 > 0:00:45Hope in the face of difficulty.
0:00:45 > 0:00:48Hope in the face of uncertainty.
0:00:48 > 0:00:50The audacity of hope.
0:00:51 > 0:00:54'I thought this was like my JFK.'
0:00:54 > 0:00:57My parents talked about how JFK was the one president they believed in.
0:00:57 > 0:01:00Barack Obama makes an incredible first impression.
0:01:00 > 0:01:03You know, I suspect he makes the best first impression of anybody
0:01:03 > 0:01:05in American politics in the last 40 years.
0:01:05 > 0:01:08Those who tell us that we can't,
0:01:08 > 0:01:11we will respond with that timeless creed
0:01:11 > 0:01:14that sums up the spirit of a people.
0:01:14 > 0:01:15Yes, we can.
0:01:16 > 0:01:20Four years on and Obama's in a very tight race with Mitt Romney,
0:01:20 > 0:01:23and the mood in the country is very polarised
0:01:23 > 0:01:25and often incredibly angry.
0:01:25 > 0:01:29We're mad as hell and we're not going to take it any more!
0:01:29 > 0:01:32It's that simple. He's in over his head, he has been the whole way,
0:01:32 > 0:01:35and that's reflected in the dismal results of his administration.
0:01:36 > 0:01:40America remains a sun-kissed country
0:01:40 > 0:01:44but the shadows have never been darker,
0:01:44 > 0:01:46so you could say the question is simple.
0:01:46 > 0:01:49Whatever happened to hope?
0:02:01 > 0:02:04This is the story of a personality
0:02:04 > 0:02:07and it starts with a man in the corner.
0:02:07 > 0:02:11On July 27th, 2004,
0:02:11 > 0:02:15a photographer was covering presidential candidate John Kerry
0:02:15 > 0:02:18at the Democratic National Convention.
0:02:18 > 0:02:22Waiting for his speech, she found her attention wandering
0:02:22 > 0:02:28towards a tall, skinny, African-American with big ears.
0:02:28 > 0:02:31I did some photographs of him just sitting on a stool.
0:02:31 > 0:02:34He wasn't nervous.
0:02:34 > 0:02:37I'd asked him, "Are you nervous about your speech?" He said, "No."
0:02:37 > 0:02:40I sent all these pictures of him back
0:02:40 > 0:02:44and my editor was like, "Obviously you really liked this person.
0:02:44 > 0:02:46"I don't know why you sent me so many pictures of him."
0:02:46 > 0:02:48I said, "I don't know. I think you're going to see him a lot."
0:02:50 > 0:02:52And then he made this speech,
0:02:52 > 0:02:55the now famous speech at the Democratic convention.
0:02:57 > 0:03:01If there's a child on the south side of Chicago who can't read,
0:03:01 > 0:03:03that matters to me, even if it's not my child.
0:03:03 > 0:03:06If there's a senior citizen somewhere who can't pay
0:03:06 > 0:03:10for their prescription drugs and having to choose between medicine and rent,
0:03:10 > 0:03:15that makes my life poorer even if it's not my grandparent.
0:03:15 > 0:03:18If there's an Arab-American family being rounded up without benefit
0:03:18 > 0:03:23of an attorney or due process, that threatens my civil liberties.
0:03:28 > 0:03:31Now, this was one of the great verbal hijackings
0:03:31 > 0:03:34of American political history.
0:03:34 > 0:03:37A short speech which changed Obama's life forever
0:03:37 > 0:03:40and made him a household name.
0:03:40 > 0:03:41Before the speech,
0:03:41 > 0:03:45the idea of Obama running for president would have been laughable.
0:03:45 > 0:03:48He was a young state senator, a beginner,
0:03:48 > 0:03:52though he and his wife, Michelle, did seem normal folk
0:03:52 > 0:03:57from outside the tight circles of America's political elite.
0:03:58 > 0:04:03When I started covering the Obamas, they really were Barack and Michelle.
0:04:03 > 0:04:06They were Chicagoans, they were normal people, very ambitious,
0:04:06 > 0:04:10very talented, but they did not live in the political bubble.
0:04:10 > 0:04:15They did not live in a universe of green rooms and briefing books.
0:04:20 > 0:04:21Another interesting one here.
0:04:21 > 0:04:24This is him in an ice cream parlour, yes?
0:04:24 > 0:04:27- It's a little diner, ice cream parlour.- Little diner, yeah.
0:04:27 > 0:04:28He had got an ice cream
0:04:28 > 0:04:30and I loved it cos everybody was getting ready to leave,
0:04:30 > 0:04:32we were getting ready to get on the buses and the car,
0:04:32 > 0:04:35and he's tidying up, and he said,
0:04:35 > 0:04:39"You know, Michelle gets upset if you don't clean up after yourself."
0:04:46 > 0:04:50But this polite, tidy man had always stood out
0:04:50 > 0:04:53amongst his political contemporaries.
0:04:53 > 0:04:56His was a restless ambition.
0:04:56 > 0:04:58The first time I encountered Barack Obama
0:04:58 > 0:05:04was when he gave the opening lecture to first-year law students.
0:05:04 > 0:05:08He was the new President of the Harvard Law Review at that time,
0:05:08 > 0:05:10but he was already very well known on campus
0:05:10 > 0:05:14and incredibly charismatic.
0:05:14 > 0:05:17He's incredibly poised.
0:05:17 > 0:05:20He has a combination of being
0:05:20 > 0:05:23commanding and light at the same time.
0:05:23 > 0:05:25He made an incredible impression on me
0:05:25 > 0:05:27and all the first-years who saw him that day.
0:05:29 > 0:05:33He wanted to build a movement that was about change.
0:05:33 > 0:05:36Expanding the electorate was an important part of this,
0:05:36 > 0:05:39bring in younger voters, bring in new voters to the process,
0:05:39 > 0:05:42bring in more African-Americans, bring in more Hispanics, you know,
0:05:42 > 0:05:44create an electorate here in this country
0:05:44 > 0:05:46that looked more like the country itself.
0:05:50 > 0:05:54PROTESTERS CHANT
0:05:58 > 0:06:01But change means political change.
0:06:01 > 0:06:05It's not just culture and it can't be just skin deep,
0:06:05 > 0:06:07so change to what?
0:06:07 > 0:06:09This autumn, in Obama's home town, Chicago,
0:06:09 > 0:06:14where he cut his teeth in the tough south side, the mood is angry.
0:06:14 > 0:06:17Today the teachers are striking over proposed changes
0:06:17 > 0:06:19to their pay and school conditions.
0:06:21 > 0:06:23The teachers are walking the picket line today,
0:06:23 > 0:06:27demanding a fair contract and better schools for our children.
0:06:30 > 0:06:33- Are you going to stick together? - ALL: Yes.
0:06:33 > 0:06:39This is the first teachers' strike in Chicago in 25 years.
0:06:39 > 0:06:43It's been partly organised through the community organising movement
0:06:43 > 0:06:48that Obama himself was part of when he started out in politics.
0:06:48 > 0:06:52CHANTING CONTINUES
0:06:52 > 0:06:57Did you come across him in your work in organising and so on?
0:06:57 > 0:07:01Yes, actually, our neighbourhood is where he was a state senator.
0:07:01 > 0:07:04He did a lot of great things, you know, trying to create policies
0:07:04 > 0:07:07that really impacted the lives of people on the ground
0:07:07 > 0:07:11and this is important because, as a President that knows how to
0:07:11 > 0:07:14listen to the people directly impacted,
0:07:14 > 0:07:16I know he'll hear the voices of teachers and the parents
0:07:16 > 0:07:20because this is not going anywhere. It's only going to get worse.
0:07:22 > 0:07:28Obama supporters are protesting against cuts under his presidency,
0:07:28 > 0:07:30by his allies, who still run this city,
0:07:30 > 0:07:34and yet they are still believers.
0:07:38 > 0:07:44This is a city with a reputation for brutal, often corrupt, politics.
0:07:45 > 0:07:49But Chicago's mood on that historic night in November 2008
0:07:49 > 0:07:56when Obama was elected president was briefly ecstatically different.
0:08:06 > 0:08:10It sort of showcased to the world, not just a historic evening,
0:08:10 > 0:08:14but a very euphoric feeling that people had.
0:08:15 > 0:08:17It was a very happy time.
0:08:17 > 0:08:20It was almost sort of Kumbaya, you know.
0:08:20 > 0:08:23Not something you're typically going to see in the city of Chicago,
0:08:23 > 0:08:27even though it's a friendly city. This just took it up a notch
0:08:27 > 0:08:30and it was just one of the most wonderful things to be part of.
0:08:30 > 0:08:34It was a very exciting and hopeful time for America.
0:08:37 > 0:08:39People were excited, you know?
0:08:39 > 0:08:42This is something that a lot of my friends on the campaign
0:08:42 > 0:08:45worked very hard for months, and maybe a little over a year,
0:08:45 > 0:08:49and to actually be there to be able to work and start implementing
0:08:49 > 0:08:52the change that you fought for, it was an electric time to be there.
0:08:56 > 0:09:00One of his greatest strengths was simply his presence.
0:09:00 > 0:09:03Full of charisma and charm when it suited him,
0:09:03 > 0:09:06Obama could be suddenly captivating.
0:09:10 > 0:09:13One of my most amazing memories I have from working in the White House
0:09:13 > 0:09:15was bringing my parents in that first summer I was working there.
0:09:19 > 0:09:21My dad is a very chatty person.
0:09:21 > 0:09:24I have never seen him speechless until this moment,
0:09:24 > 0:09:26and both my parents got tears in their eyes
0:09:26 > 0:09:28and the President stuck his hand out to my dad,
0:09:28 > 0:09:30and my dad, being who he is,
0:09:30 > 0:09:33gave the President of the United States a hug.
0:09:35 > 0:09:37And the President said, "Oh, you're a hugger?"
0:09:37 > 0:09:40And hugged him back.
0:09:40 > 0:09:43Honestly, that is one of my most precious memories
0:09:43 > 0:09:45of working in the White House.
0:09:45 > 0:09:50It is a lovely picture, but it isn't the whole picture.
0:09:50 > 0:09:53Another close observer, Artur Davis,
0:09:53 > 0:09:56had spotted a flaw right from the start.
0:09:56 > 0:09:58Bill Clinton was a big talker.
0:09:58 > 0:10:01You could bring Bill Clinton into this restaurant right now
0:10:01 > 0:10:05and you could sit him down and Clinton could talk for 20 minutes to everybody in this restaurant.
0:10:05 > 0:10:08That's not Barack Obama.
0:10:08 > 0:10:11The times I've seen him,
0:10:11 > 0:10:13not much of a small talker,
0:10:13 > 0:10:18not someone who engages in the kind of chit-chat -
0:10:18 > 0:10:21it's a wonderfully British phrase -
0:10:21 > 0:10:25the kind of chit-chat that American politicians tend to be good at.
0:10:25 > 0:10:29He doesn't have that Clintonian kind of ability to make you feel
0:10:29 > 0:10:33you're the only person in the room he's interested in talking to.
0:10:35 > 0:10:37He is someone who strikes me
0:10:37 > 0:10:41as being enormously comfortable on a stage.
0:10:43 > 0:10:46We are shaped by every language and culture,
0:10:46 > 0:10:48drawn from every end of this earth,
0:10:48 > 0:10:52and because we have tasted the bitter swill of civil war and segregation
0:10:52 > 0:10:56and emerged from that dark chapter stronger and more united,
0:10:56 > 0:11:00we cannot help but believe that the old hatreds shall some day pass,
0:11:00 > 0:11:03that the lines of tribes shall soon dissolve,
0:11:03 > 0:11:07that as the world grows smaller our common humanity shall reveal itself
0:11:07 > 0:11:12and that America must play its role in ushering in a new era of peace.
0:11:12 > 0:11:15CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
0:11:17 > 0:11:21He did a very good job painting a picture of politics without
0:11:21 > 0:11:26necessarily filling in the canvas with a lot of policies.
0:11:26 > 0:11:29Frankly, there's a talent to that.
0:11:29 > 0:11:32You know, the people who teach politicians how to be politicians
0:11:32 > 0:11:35try to tell you how to do that kind of thing,
0:11:35 > 0:11:37and Obama seemed very good at it.
0:11:40 > 0:11:47Whenever a new charismatic leader arrives and is over-praised,
0:11:47 > 0:11:51we all sort of know what's going to happen next,
0:11:51 > 0:11:53and this is not just an American issue.
0:11:53 > 0:11:56There was a guy called...
0:11:56 > 0:11:59Tony something, in our case.
0:11:59 > 0:12:02But with Barack Obama it was even more so.
0:12:02 > 0:12:06There was an exuberance, a political intoxication
0:12:06 > 0:12:12which is particularly dangerous if the person concerned then inhales
0:12:12 > 0:12:14and starts to believe it,
0:12:14 > 0:12:19and with Barack Obama you look back at the language used in 2008,
0:12:19 > 0:12:21and it's embarrassing.
0:12:21 > 0:12:26He was compared quite seriously by some people with a messiah.
0:12:26 > 0:12:31It got even so bad that Joe Biden, the vice president,
0:12:31 > 0:12:34said to a group of people at a dinner,
0:12:34 > 0:12:38"I'm really sorry that it's me addressing you tonight.
0:12:38 > 0:12:42"The president can't be here. He's preparing for Easter.
0:12:42 > 0:12:44"He thinks it's about him."
0:12:47 > 0:12:50Even Obama saw the absurdity of it.
0:12:52 > 0:12:57I believe that my next 100 days will be so successful
0:12:57 > 0:12:59I will be able to complete them in 72 days.
0:12:59 > 0:13:02LAUGHTER
0:13:02 > 0:13:04And on the 73rd day, I will rest.
0:13:04 > 0:13:05LAUGHTER
0:13:09 > 0:13:11Self-deprecation is perhaps
0:13:11 > 0:13:15the most successful modern politician's weapon of all,
0:13:15 > 0:13:20but Obama believed his own rhetoric of sudden and radical change.
0:13:20 > 0:13:21On his first day on the job,
0:13:21 > 0:13:25he signed an executive order promising with a stroke of a pen
0:13:25 > 0:13:29to change the moral ground rules of the War On Terror.
0:13:31 > 0:13:33This is me following through on,
0:13:33 > 0:13:37not just a commitment I made during the campaign,
0:13:37 > 0:13:41but, I think, an understanding
0:13:41 > 0:13:44that dates back to our founding fathers
0:13:44 > 0:13:47that we are willing to observe...
0:13:50 > 0:13:52..core standards of conduct,
0:13:52 > 0:13:54not just when it's easy, but also when it's hard.
0:13:54 > 0:13:58The very first day in office, he signed these three executive orders,
0:13:58 > 0:14:02to close Guantanamo, to end the torture of detainees,
0:14:02 > 0:14:06and to make sure America would treat all detainees humanely.
0:14:06 > 0:14:11Now, those were the most important promises he made from day one,
0:14:11 > 0:14:14and you felt right away he was going to make good on those promises.
0:14:14 > 0:14:16You felt he's getting off on the right foot.
0:14:16 > 0:14:18He's making good on those campaign promises.
0:14:18 > 0:14:20And so if our expectations were high
0:14:20 > 0:14:23it's also because the president himself set them high.
0:14:24 > 0:14:28This was Obama's own thought-through project
0:14:28 > 0:14:30for a different, friendlier America,
0:14:30 > 0:14:33and his chosen audience wasn't just at home
0:14:33 > 0:14:36but in Europe, Asia and the Arab world.
0:14:39 > 0:14:43The Obama administration, very deliberative.
0:14:43 > 0:14:46The president is a constitutional law professor
0:14:46 > 0:14:50and I think he runs that process in a very deliberate,
0:14:50 > 0:14:53very concerted, very focused manner.
0:14:53 > 0:14:55I think the most significant challenge
0:14:55 > 0:14:59was re-establishing US credibility in the world
0:14:59 > 0:15:03and the world was looking for a different kind of leader
0:15:03 > 0:15:05after George W Bush.
0:15:05 > 0:15:10I've come here to Cairo to seek a new beginning
0:15:10 > 0:15:13between the United States and Muslims around the world.
0:15:13 > 0:15:18One based on mutual interest and mutual respect
0:15:18 > 0:15:23and one based upon the truth that America and Islam are not exclusive
0:15:23 > 0:15:26and need not be in competition.
0:15:28 > 0:15:30This speech at Cairo University
0:15:30 > 0:15:33promised a new start in the Middle East.
0:15:33 > 0:15:38Obama was vigorously waving an olive branch at the Muslim world.
0:15:40 > 0:15:44But four years on, with no movement between Israelis and Palestinians
0:15:44 > 0:15:46and the bloody war in Afghanistan grinding on,
0:15:46 > 0:15:50relations with the Muslim world remain tense.
0:15:50 > 0:15:52Guantanamo Bay stayed open.
0:15:52 > 0:15:56Congress wouldn't have agreed to take the untried detainees
0:15:56 > 0:15:58on to American soil.
0:15:58 > 0:16:00Even if you're president,
0:16:00 > 0:16:03saying something doesn't mean it will happen.
0:16:03 > 0:16:07The dilemma for the president has been high expectations
0:16:07 > 0:16:11and on a policy-by-policy basis
0:16:11 > 0:16:13people may well be disappointed.
0:16:13 > 0:16:15Guantanamo would be a perfect example.
0:16:15 > 0:16:21He committed to close Guantanamo and has been unsuccessful in doing that.
0:16:31 > 0:16:36So if Obama had naively over-promised
0:16:36 > 0:16:40when it came to a whole range of foreign policies and human rights
0:16:40 > 0:16:44and much else, this election now,
0:16:44 > 0:16:46like all big American elections,
0:16:46 > 0:16:51is about whither America, and that means the economy,
0:16:51 > 0:16:54still in terrible trouble.
0:16:54 > 0:16:58And that story has to start in 2008 with the banking crisis,
0:16:58 > 0:17:02when, for an awful lot of people, it seemed the entire banking system
0:17:02 > 0:17:05was on the edge of complete collapse.
0:17:05 > 0:17:09People unable to take out money to buy food.
0:17:09 > 0:17:12Millions of people perhaps being thrown out of their houses
0:17:12 > 0:17:17on to the streets, and America facing a social crisis
0:17:17 > 0:17:21at least as bad, possibly worse, than it went through in the 1930s.
0:17:23 > 0:17:27Into this storm was thrown a young economics professor
0:17:27 > 0:17:29from Chicago University.
0:17:29 > 0:17:34We met face to face in the green room and he says, "Who are you?"
0:17:34 > 0:17:37I said, "I'm Professor Goolsbee." And he looked and said,
0:17:37 > 0:17:42"I thought I had a guy with a tweed jacket with patches, 65 years old.
0:17:42 > 0:17:45"You don't look anything like a professor!
0:17:45 > 0:17:46"And what is it with Goolsbee?"
0:17:46 > 0:17:50And I said, "Look, you're telling everybody you're the skinny guy
0:17:50 > 0:17:53"with the funny name, you stole my bit, that's my bit!"
0:17:53 > 0:17:58Goolsbee had been one of Obama's closest advisors during the campaign.
0:17:58 > 0:18:01Later he'd become the White House Chairman of Economic Advisors.
0:18:03 > 0:18:08We come in and it's getting worse one week after another,
0:18:08 > 0:18:13and so the transition between
0:18:13 > 0:18:15Election Day and Inauguration Day
0:18:15 > 0:18:22was largely a blur of people scrambling to sort out stimulus,
0:18:22 > 0:18:24sort out financial rescue.
0:18:24 > 0:18:28In addition on the side, the auto industry is about to collapse.
0:18:28 > 0:18:29They're coming in.
0:18:29 > 0:18:34"Unless we get 20 billion more it's going to cease to exist."
0:18:34 > 0:18:36I mean, it was just one thing terrifying after another.
0:18:36 > 0:18:39Then we go to the economy.
0:18:39 > 0:18:42At that time, the data was suggesting
0:18:42 > 0:18:46that it was shrinking at about a minus 4% annual rate,
0:18:46 > 0:18:49which is about as bad a recession as we've ever had.
0:18:49 > 0:18:55It's now been revised that it was shrinking at a minus 9% annual rate,
0:18:55 > 0:18:59that it was the worst six months in the 65 years of data
0:18:59 > 0:19:01that we have on GDP growth.
0:19:01 > 0:19:03Housing, horrible, down, it's not coming back.
0:19:03 > 0:19:09Net worth of family. So it was just one thing after another. Awful.
0:19:09 > 0:19:11The political people are at this meeting.
0:19:11 > 0:19:15Their faces are just dropping more and more. Oh, my God.
0:19:15 > 0:19:18And then the meeting finishes,
0:19:18 > 0:19:21I go up to the president-elect and I say, "You know what?
0:19:21 > 0:19:24"That's got to be the worst background briefing
0:19:24 > 0:19:31"that a president-elect has had since Franklin Roosevelt in 1932,
0:19:31 > 0:19:35"or maybe since Abraham Lincoln in 1861."
0:19:35 > 0:19:38You know, that the nation has decided to break up.
0:19:38 > 0:19:42And Obama looks at me and he says,
0:19:42 > 0:19:46"Goolsbee, that's not even my worst briefing this week."
0:19:46 > 0:19:48And it was like, "Oh, jeez, Louise."
0:19:48 > 0:19:50You do not want to be in this guy's job.
0:19:59 > 0:20:03He is in the cabinet room and in the photograph he is leaning back
0:20:03 > 0:20:08in his chair, and Larry Summers is saying,
0:20:08 > 0:20:11"I'd like to say this all going to get better,
0:20:11 > 0:20:14"but it is going to get so much worse before it's better."
0:20:17 > 0:20:23I can remember him saying, "I need you to tell me all the bad stuff.
0:20:23 > 0:20:25"Do not tell me how good it's going to get.
0:20:25 > 0:20:27"I need to know how bad it's going to get."
0:20:28 > 0:20:30We're sleeping under our desks,
0:20:30 > 0:20:34people are eating Tic Tac candies for dinner, and this kind of thing.
0:20:34 > 0:20:39The fact that we get into just the same old politics and finger-pointing
0:20:39 > 0:20:42and people are just going to argue with each other
0:20:42 > 0:20:45while you've got millions of people out of work,
0:20:45 > 0:20:50while we've seen a horrible financial collapse and crisis,
0:20:50 > 0:20:53you would think that people would have kind of put down their guns
0:20:53 > 0:20:56for a little bit and said, "All right, fine, let's sort this out
0:20:56 > 0:21:00"and once we're sure we're OK then let's go back to our fighting,"
0:21:00 > 0:21:02but it just wasn't to be.
0:21:04 > 0:21:07Washington in-fighting is old news.
0:21:07 > 0:21:11The new news was the possible collapse of American capitalism,
0:21:11 > 0:21:16and Obama was very inexperienced in the ruthless ways
0:21:16 > 0:21:18at the heart of American power.
0:21:20 > 0:21:24Remember, he was still getting lost in the halls of the Capitol
0:21:24 > 0:21:27when he decided to run for president.
0:21:27 > 0:21:30He was really just out of the Illinois State Senate,
0:21:30 > 0:21:33did not have strong relationships with the legislators
0:21:33 > 0:21:37on Capitol Hill, didn't have a lot of economic experience.
0:21:39 > 0:21:42Despite the massive national debt,
0:21:42 > 0:21:45Obama went for a huge injection of cash into the economy,
0:21:45 > 0:21:49some 787 billion.
0:21:49 > 0:21:52He thought the way to solve the economic problems was to
0:21:52 > 0:21:55inject money into the economy and get people spending again.
0:21:56 > 0:22:00They passed the thing in the first few weeks of the administration,
0:22:00 > 0:22:06so even though intellectually everyone knows that it takes months
0:22:06 > 0:22:11for anything to have an impact, in some sense it doesn't matter
0:22:11 > 0:22:14and you still see people saying, "Well, they passed the stimulus
0:22:14 > 0:22:16"and the unemployment rate continued to go up,"
0:22:16 > 0:22:21not noting the unemployment rate's already well above eight percent,
0:22:21 > 0:22:25pushing nine percent, before the first dollar of the stimulus money
0:22:25 > 0:22:27has even gone out the door.
0:22:30 > 0:22:33But some economists felt that the president
0:22:33 > 0:22:35was ignoring the bigger picture.
0:22:36 > 0:22:41Jeffrey Sachs has been described as the world's most famous economist.
0:22:41 > 0:22:45Early on, he was brought in to the White House to advise Obama,
0:22:45 > 0:22:47but he was deeply unimpressed.
0:22:49 > 0:22:51When you looked at the plan and it was,
0:22:51 > 0:22:54"We're going to spend money everywhere and it's going to be
0:22:54 > 0:22:57"in six weeks we're going to decide how to do everything," it struck me
0:22:57 > 0:23:00that that was both bad politics and bad economics.
0:23:00 > 0:23:01Cut taxes...
0:23:01 > 0:23:06Cut taxes or increase spending, but do it fast, fast, fast.
0:23:06 > 0:23:11That was the stimulus approach. That's what was adopted.
0:23:11 > 0:23:13I did not agree with that at the time.
0:23:13 > 0:23:18I was rather stunned because I was so much focused, also, on,
0:23:18 > 0:23:22"How are we going to implement real change
0:23:22 > 0:23:26"that's starting from a 1 trillion deficit at that point?"
0:23:26 > 0:23:30and the government was proposing to raise it to about 1.5 trillion,
0:23:30 > 0:23:32and I thought, "That's rather shocking."
0:23:32 > 0:23:36The stimulus package under Obama, where we infused a lot of money
0:23:36 > 0:23:39into the economy and propped up institutions that were failing
0:23:39 > 0:23:42may not have done a lot to spur the economy on,
0:23:42 > 0:23:45but certainly kept the country from going even further backwards
0:23:45 > 0:23:49to a great depression that would be very difficult to recover from.
0:24:01 > 0:24:07But, by and large, politicians don't get thanked for what didn't happen.
0:24:07 > 0:24:10Unemployment is still stubbornly high,
0:24:10 > 0:24:15middle-class Americans feel poorer, and the poor are as poor as ever.
0:24:15 > 0:24:19Here in Southern Chicago, core Obama territory,
0:24:19 > 0:24:22life is getting tougher too.
0:24:22 > 0:24:24So have these people lost faith?
0:24:27 > 0:24:34If this was just a story of conservative, right-wing America, sceptical about government,
0:24:34 > 0:24:39versus sort of left-ish, blacker America, wanting more subsidies,
0:24:39 > 0:24:42then it would be predictable and it would be a bit depressing,
0:24:42 > 0:24:46but the story's more interesting than that.
0:24:46 > 0:24:50The America of Chicago's South Suburban College
0:24:50 > 0:24:55is intensely patriotic, and plenty of people here
0:24:55 > 0:25:00are very sceptical about the ability of government to deliver jobs.
0:25:03 > 0:25:06In the corner, they're registering electors to make sure they vote,
0:25:06 > 0:25:10but even here there is a sturdy belief
0:25:10 > 0:25:13in standing on your own two feet.
0:25:13 > 0:25:17Self help remains a core American value and, after all,
0:25:17 > 0:25:20Obama didn't say, "Yes, I can."
0:25:20 > 0:25:22He said to America, "YOU can."
0:25:22 > 0:25:26- Government doesn't produce jobs, in your view? - Government does not produce jobs.
0:25:26 > 0:25:28Businesses produce jobs, opportunities produce jobs,
0:25:28 > 0:25:33so they're out there - we just have to
0:25:33 > 0:25:37galvanise those opportunities and get the machines running,
0:25:37 > 0:25:39in order to put people back to work.
0:25:39 > 0:25:43So that original "Yes, we can" slogan -
0:25:43 > 0:25:46people haven't quite understood properly?
0:25:46 > 0:25:48Well, that was quite interesting, yes.
0:25:48 > 0:25:51Everyone was screaming, "Yes, we can. Yes, we can."
0:25:51 > 0:25:53and elected the man and turned their backs
0:25:53 > 0:25:56and started whispering to themselves, "Yes, HE can."
0:26:05 > 0:26:10But where Obama did say "Yes, I can. Yes, I will."
0:26:10 > 0:26:15was over a big slice of top-down reform to America's health care system,
0:26:15 > 0:26:19a policy which certainly would interfere with people's daily lives
0:26:19 > 0:26:22but was close to his heart.
0:26:26 > 0:26:29He watched his mother die of cancer and, you know,
0:26:29 > 0:26:33if she had had maybe proper screenings, you know,
0:26:33 > 0:26:35maybe they could have caught something sooner,
0:26:35 > 0:26:38so I think for him it was very personal, and not to mention
0:26:38 > 0:26:41that he heard from, you know, just hundreds of people
0:26:41 > 0:26:44across the country tell their stories of how they suffered
0:26:44 > 0:26:48from a disease or they'd watched their kids suffer.
0:26:52 > 0:26:56BARACK OBAMA: One woman from Texas was about to get a double mastectomy
0:26:56 > 0:26:58when her insurance company
0:26:58 > 0:27:02cancelled her policy because she forgot to declare a case of acne.
0:27:02 > 0:27:04By the time she had her insurance reinstated,
0:27:04 > 0:27:08her breast cancer had more than doubled in size.
0:27:09 > 0:27:11That is heartbreaking, it is wrong,
0:27:11 > 0:27:15and no-one should be treated that way in the United States of America.
0:27:15 > 0:27:18LOUD CHEERING
0:27:22 > 0:27:26But it wasn't just the stories he heard from the American people
0:27:26 > 0:27:28that were spurring him forward.
0:27:28 > 0:27:31At his side, he had a formidable ally -
0:27:31 > 0:27:34somebody who wasn't going to let him forget his promise
0:27:34 > 0:27:37that he was going to be a transformative president -
0:27:37 > 0:27:42the politically savvy, determined new first lady, Michelle Obama.
0:27:45 > 0:27:48What she is is the kind of overall keeper of standards
0:27:48 > 0:27:50for this administration.
0:27:50 > 0:27:53Part of the job of a first lady is to try to get the country
0:27:53 > 0:27:55to see the president the way she sees him.
0:27:55 > 0:28:00Michelle Obama wants us to see Barack Obama as she sees him,
0:28:00 > 0:28:05as she's always seen him - as not an everyday, wheeling, dealing,
0:28:05 > 0:28:09corrupt politician, but as this kind of exalted figure,
0:28:09 > 0:28:12as somebody who's above it all, who takes big risks,
0:28:12 > 0:28:16who enacts fundamental reforms, who takes on harder problems.
0:28:16 > 0:28:19That is the president she wants him to be.
0:28:21 > 0:28:26And if there was one domestic policy with the potential to put Obama
0:28:26 > 0:28:28into a different class, to make a lasting change,
0:28:28 > 0:28:30it would be health care.
0:28:31 > 0:28:35This was an issue that people in most countries
0:28:35 > 0:28:40cannot even fathom or understand how the US could be...
0:28:40 > 0:28:44We've got to have 40, 50 million people with no health insurance.
0:28:44 > 0:28:47The most common cause of personal bankruptcy in the United States
0:28:47 > 0:28:52is you or a family member gets some major illness
0:28:52 > 0:28:54and it blows through all your resources
0:28:54 > 0:28:57and you must declare bankruptcy.
0:28:57 > 0:29:04So I think the issue of health care coverage and cost
0:29:04 > 0:29:07is one of the most fundamental issues in the United States.
0:29:08 > 0:29:10Health care in America is hugely expensive.
0:29:10 > 0:29:14Most people get it through insurance with their employers.
0:29:14 > 0:29:17Obama's bill would force all Americans not in a company scheme
0:29:17 > 0:29:21to buy their own cover or pay a fine and, in return,
0:29:21 > 0:29:25insurance companies would have to cover these new customers,
0:29:25 > 0:29:30even if they already had illnesses which would once have ruled them out as bad risks.
0:29:31 > 0:29:35Now, you might think, "How lovely. What could be more popular?"
0:29:35 > 0:29:39Well, you could not be more wrong.
0:29:39 > 0:29:44For many Americans, this was European-style socialism.
0:29:44 > 0:29:48For others, it was distracting him from the big job of the economy
0:29:48 > 0:29:50and creating employment.
0:29:50 > 0:29:52And for a huge number of Americans,
0:29:52 > 0:29:55it was simply too complicated to understand.
0:30:00 > 0:30:01This is a courageous president.
0:30:01 > 0:30:04He could have side-stepped health care for a while.
0:30:04 > 0:30:05Instead, he took it on right away.
0:30:05 > 0:30:08He made it a very important executive decision
0:30:08 > 0:30:10that right from the beginning of his administration,
0:30:10 > 0:30:13health care would be a core agenda.
0:30:13 > 0:30:16I know he got advice from many advisors - it's been written about -
0:30:16 > 0:30:18to say, "No, no - not yet. Stay, wait a while."
0:30:18 > 0:30:21He chose not to, and I think he did the right thing.
0:30:21 > 0:30:24- CROWD CHANTS:- No more Obamacare! No more Obamacare!
0:30:24 > 0:30:27I want to know if it's coming out of my pay cheque...
0:30:27 > 0:30:30'In public meetings over the summer, opponents of health care reform
0:30:30 > 0:30:34'made it clear they weren't just concerned - they were incandescent.'
0:30:34 > 0:30:37I don't want this country turning into Russia,
0:30:37 > 0:30:39turning into a socialised country.
0:30:39 > 0:30:42No Obamacare! No Obamacare!
0:30:42 > 0:30:45These folks, and all the folks like them,
0:30:45 > 0:30:49want the rest of all of us to go to work every day
0:30:49 > 0:30:52to pay for their health care, so they don't have to.
0:30:52 > 0:30:55It's disgusting.
0:30:55 > 0:30:58Much of America loathed the idea
0:30:58 > 0:31:01of the state getting more involved in medicine.
0:31:01 > 0:31:04Obama misjudged the level of anger his bill would unleash
0:31:04 > 0:31:07among people who deeply distrusted big government.
0:31:07 > 0:31:10..power over life and death. They've already taken our jobs,
0:31:10 > 0:31:12our houses, and now they're going after our cars.
0:31:12 > 0:31:19Everyone has to admit that a communication lapse developed
0:31:19 > 0:31:24around an important, helpful law
0:31:24 > 0:31:26that was somehow not understood that way by the public,
0:31:26 > 0:31:30and I don't understand where that message got lost.
0:31:31 > 0:31:35This was one of the most bitterly fought pieces of legislation
0:31:35 > 0:31:37in recent American history,
0:31:37 > 0:31:41and after months of hostile debate, it became law in March 2010.
0:31:42 > 0:31:46President Obama, can you hear America now?
0:31:46 > 0:31:51But eight months later, he would pay a huge price.
0:31:51 > 0:31:52Good evening, everyone.
0:31:52 > 0:31:56Today we saw a humbled and introspective President Obama
0:31:56 > 0:31:58after a major political defeat.
0:31:58 > 0:32:02The mid-term elections give American voters the chance,
0:32:02 > 0:32:06two years into a President's term, to shake Washington up.
0:32:06 > 0:32:10It's an unmistakeable verdict on how the man at the top is doing,
0:32:10 > 0:32:16and, in 2010, Obama's Democrats were slaughtered.
0:32:16 > 0:32:19They suffered their biggest loss since 1948.
0:32:19 > 0:32:22Jubilant Republicans took control of the House of Representatives,
0:32:22 > 0:32:25and were able to block him in the Senate as well,
0:32:25 > 0:32:28and this was a political disaster.
0:32:29 > 0:32:31He paid a huge price for it.
0:32:31 > 0:32:35I think in part you can explain the losing the House of Representatives
0:32:35 > 0:32:40in 2010 to the health care reform debate, and I think that there was
0:32:40 > 0:32:44just a very, very powerful feeling that things had not changed and,
0:32:44 > 0:32:47in fact, were going in the wrong direction, that the things that
0:32:47 > 0:32:52people hoped would be different when he was president weren't different.
0:32:55 > 0:32:57What they chose to do was not
0:32:57 > 0:33:00what the country needed to help fix the economy.
0:33:00 > 0:33:02They chose to do health care.
0:33:02 > 0:33:05They chose to, you know, work on energy policy,
0:33:05 > 0:33:07they chose to ignore the economy.
0:33:07 > 0:33:10They did what they wanted to do, so it's a fallacy.
0:33:10 > 0:33:12They got done exactly what they set out to do.
0:33:12 > 0:33:14It was just the wrong thing to do.
0:33:20 > 0:33:23It may not be his election, but losing Congress
0:33:23 > 0:33:26fundamentally changed what he could actually do as President,
0:33:26 > 0:33:31and certainly started this narrative around, you know, his loss,
0:33:31 > 0:33:34his fall from grace, the loss of power, the failure,
0:33:34 > 0:33:36you know, of his efforts.
0:33:41 > 0:33:47Obama could rouse and inspire. He could do the poetry of politics.
0:33:47 > 0:33:51What he couldn't do was argue through the nit and the grit,
0:33:51 > 0:33:56make the complex seem clear, tell a story about governing.
0:33:56 > 0:34:00He had been a great symbol, but symbols aren't always good
0:34:00 > 0:34:05at having conversations, and for a president that's a serious failing.
0:34:09 > 0:34:13We welcome President Obama and Governor Romney.
0:34:13 > 0:34:17CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
0:34:17 > 0:34:20Two years later, in the high-stakes arena
0:34:20 > 0:34:23of the first presidential debate with Mitt Romney,
0:34:23 > 0:34:25Obama again stumbled.
0:34:25 > 0:34:28He seemed nervous, and failed to get his message across.
0:34:31 > 0:34:35You know, four years ago, I said that I'm not a perfect man
0:34:35 > 0:34:38and I wouldn't be a perfect president, and that's probably
0:34:38 > 0:34:40a promise that Governor Romney thinks I've kept.
0:34:40 > 0:34:45But I also promised that I'd fight every single day
0:34:45 > 0:34:47on behalf of the American people, and the middle class,
0:34:47 > 0:34:50and all those who were striving to get in the middle class.
0:34:50 > 0:34:53I've kept that promise, and if you'll vote for me
0:34:53 > 0:34:57then I promise I'll fight just as hard in a second term.
0:34:57 > 0:35:01The pulpit is one thing, the bear pit quite another.
0:35:01 > 0:35:06Obama seemed to disdain the job of defending his record result,
0:35:06 > 0:35:10Romney reignited his spluttering campaign.
0:35:10 > 0:35:11There's no question in my mind
0:35:11 > 0:35:15that if the president were to be re-elected, you'll continue to see a middle-class squeeze,
0:35:15 > 0:35:18with incomes going down and prices going up.
0:35:18 > 0:35:21I'll get incomes up again. You'll see chronic unemployment -
0:35:21 > 0:35:25we've had 43 straight months with unemployment above eight percent.
0:35:25 > 0:35:29If I'm president, I will create - help create - 12 million new jobs
0:35:29 > 0:35:31in this country, with rising incomes.
0:35:31 > 0:35:34CHEERING
0:35:34 > 0:35:39The polls have grown tighter, and Obama has upped his game,
0:35:39 > 0:35:42but when it comes to communication, he doesn't rank
0:35:42 > 0:35:44with the past masters.
0:35:44 > 0:35:47From Ronald Reagan to Bill Clinton,
0:35:47 > 0:35:51the recent titans of American politics have had the gift
0:35:51 > 0:35:56of fantastic phrases, but also of looking the nation in the eye.
0:35:59 > 0:36:02One of the things that's really interesting, being here,
0:36:02 > 0:36:05is a lot of people say that Obama might be good
0:36:05 > 0:36:08at the kind of really big-picture vision stuff,
0:36:08 > 0:36:10or used to be, but he's rubbish
0:36:10 > 0:36:13at actually explaining what he's doing,
0:36:13 > 0:36:16and all these policies are very difficult to explain.
0:36:16 > 0:36:18I was just sitting at the airport yesterday,
0:36:18 > 0:36:21watching Bill Clinton give a sort of masterclass
0:36:21 > 0:36:24of how to get the message through,
0:36:24 > 0:36:28and just picked up the Washington Post here, and it says
0:36:28 > 0:36:30that Obama has found a name for Clinton.
0:36:30 > 0:36:34He calls him the Secretary of Explaining Stuff.
0:36:34 > 0:36:36HE CHUCKLES
0:36:37 > 0:36:42We are here to nominate a President.
0:36:42 > 0:36:45CHEERING
0:36:45 > 0:36:48A man who stopped the slide into depression
0:36:48 > 0:36:51and put us on the long road to recovery.
0:36:51 > 0:36:55I want to nominate a man who's cool on the outside...
0:36:55 > 0:36:58CHEERING
0:37:00 > 0:37:03..but who burns for America on the inside.
0:37:05 > 0:37:07Clinton may well be right -
0:37:07 > 0:37:11Obama may burn for America on the inside,
0:37:11 > 0:37:15but America has to judge him by what it sees on the outside.
0:37:15 > 0:37:21Question - is Obama simply too intellectual, too solitary,
0:37:21 > 0:37:24too proud, to be a great president?
0:37:26 > 0:37:30'Intelligence is one of Barack Obama's great strengths.'
0:37:30 > 0:37:31I've seen it again and again.
0:37:31 > 0:37:35His ability to synthesise complicated information -
0:37:35 > 0:37:38it's pretty extraordinary.
0:37:38 > 0:37:41That said, the fair question to ask
0:37:41 > 0:37:45is whether he almost over-relies on his own intelligence.
0:37:45 > 0:37:47He is an extremely solitary man.
0:37:47 > 0:37:51He's the most introverted President we've seen in the United States
0:37:51 > 0:37:52for decades.
0:37:52 > 0:37:56Bill Clinton's way of making a decision was to endlessly talk to people on the phone.
0:37:56 > 0:37:58He was famous for calling people at one in the morning,
0:37:58 > 0:38:02getting them out of bed to tell them to tell him what they thought.
0:38:02 > 0:38:05Barack Obama sits alone in his presidential study,
0:38:05 > 0:38:09up in the White House residence, for hours at night,
0:38:09 > 0:38:13and he sits there writing and thinking and looking at memos
0:38:13 > 0:38:16and processing, almost as if he is trying to solve
0:38:16 > 0:38:20the problems of the entire country and the world by himself.
0:38:24 > 0:38:27And simply blaming Obama is cheap stuff.
0:38:27 > 0:38:30After all, he had offered to work with the Republicans,
0:38:30 > 0:38:34but perhaps he never understood quite how much they loathed him
0:38:34 > 0:38:40for what seems to them to be liberal condescension,
0:38:40 > 0:38:44as if all the answers are inside his head.
0:38:45 > 0:38:47He thinks he's a philosopher king.
0:38:47 > 0:38:50He has such belief that he can speak to the American people
0:38:50 > 0:38:53and elevate them and that he doesn't have to talk to the little people
0:38:53 > 0:38:57and actually come back and deal with our day-to-day concerns.
0:38:57 > 0:39:01And one of the big knocks on Barack Obama, he ran as this great uniter.
0:39:01 > 0:39:03He doesn't even talk to Congress any more.
0:39:03 > 0:39:05He has no relationships in Congress.
0:39:05 > 0:39:08He appears to most people to be above the heavy lifting of actually
0:39:08 > 0:39:11shaking hands and getting to meet these people and getting deals done.
0:39:11 > 0:39:17The degree to which this majority Congress has refused to work
0:39:17 > 0:39:20with the president is unprecedented.
0:39:20 > 0:39:24When I came to Congress in the minority, I worked with
0:39:24 > 0:39:28President Bush, and there were many other Democrats who did.
0:39:28 > 0:39:31At the time, we didn't agree with him on plenty of things,
0:39:31 > 0:39:34but on those things - whether it was war funding
0:39:34 > 0:39:39or trade agreements that made sense, that expanded opportunities in America -
0:39:39 > 0:39:41we found ways to work with the president.
0:39:41 > 0:39:45We're mad as hell and we're not going to take it any more!
0:39:46 > 0:39:51As time went on, the attacks on Obama became more extreme, not less.
0:39:51 > 0:39:56The insurgent, anti-big-government populists of the Tea Party
0:39:56 > 0:40:00had become the loudest voices in middle America, and for them
0:40:00 > 0:40:03Obama was a rank socialist, a control freak
0:40:03 > 0:40:05destroying American freedoms.
0:40:16 > 0:40:19There's a level of disrespect for this president
0:40:19 > 0:40:21that is unprecedented, and they know
0:40:21 > 0:40:25it's because he doesn't look like any other president that we've ever had.
0:40:25 > 0:40:27We're talking about race here, aren't we?
0:40:27 > 0:40:30- We're talking about race but we're also talking about culture.- Yeah.
0:40:30 > 0:40:33We're talking about a group of people who are uncomfortable
0:40:33 > 0:40:37with the changes happening in America and, you know,
0:40:37 > 0:40:40what America, you know... What's happening in America,
0:40:40 > 0:40:42and they're reacting to it.
0:40:42 > 0:40:44What you see in the Congress right now is unprecedented.
0:40:44 > 0:40:47We were again on the cusp of a depression.
0:40:47 > 0:40:51We were in the worst recession this country's seen in modern times,
0:40:51 > 0:40:53and the night before the president
0:40:53 > 0:40:56put his hands on that Bible and took the oath of office,
0:40:56 > 0:41:01Republicans in Washington sat around in the State House and plotted
0:41:01 > 0:41:07on blocking everything he did in order to see that he failed.
0:41:13 > 0:41:18And it's not just Washington that's divided.
0:41:18 > 0:41:21America is, increasingly so -
0:41:21 > 0:41:24hunkered down into different political words
0:41:24 > 0:41:28with different ideas about how to deal with economic decline,
0:41:28 > 0:41:32and very little come-and-go between right and left.
0:41:40 > 0:41:43You really see the whole northeastern coast
0:41:43 > 0:41:47of the United States basically runs Democrat from, well,
0:41:47 > 0:41:49Maine is a little bit,
0:41:49 > 0:41:52but south of Maine to Maryland, and then below that
0:41:52 > 0:41:55it's the reverse and everyone's Republican.
0:41:55 > 0:41:57People have their own media now.
0:41:57 > 0:42:01You have Fox News on the right, you have MSNBC on the left.
0:42:01 > 0:42:04They're telling, giving people all this information
0:42:04 > 0:42:07and it feels like you've got lots of information
0:42:07 > 0:42:10and you're making good decisions but, in fact, what you're doing
0:42:10 > 0:42:13is looking for information that reinforces what you already believe.
0:42:14 > 0:42:18Political success is at least one-third luck,
0:42:18 > 0:42:21and that was the divided America that Obama arrived to lead,
0:42:21 > 0:42:24and he had the bad luck to start that leadership
0:42:24 > 0:42:26in terrible economic times.
0:42:26 > 0:42:29But just when he seemed at his lowest,
0:42:29 > 0:42:32good luck arrived - from an unexpected quarter.
0:42:32 > 0:42:36Tonight I can report to the American people
0:42:36 > 0:42:37and to the world
0:42:37 > 0:42:40that the United States has conducted an operation that killed
0:42:40 > 0:42:43Osama Bin Laden, the leader of Al-Qaeda.
0:42:43 > 0:42:44- CHANTING:- USA! USA!
0:42:44 > 0:42:49He'd never campaigned as a tough guy national-security president,
0:42:49 > 0:42:53but in 2011, at long last, American special forces
0:42:53 > 0:42:58cornered the country's number-one enemy, the man behind the 9/11 attacks.
0:42:58 > 0:42:59CHEERING
0:42:59 > 0:43:02The photograph that was released of the president in the Situation Room
0:43:02 > 0:43:05with all of his advisors sort of watching the operation
0:43:05 > 0:43:08being carried out, and the fact that afterwards people knew
0:43:08 > 0:43:11that there was no guarantee that it was going to work
0:43:11 > 0:43:14or that Osama Bin Laden would even be there, it was a boost for him
0:43:14 > 0:43:17and I think that one of the things that we've heard in our research
0:43:17 > 0:43:20with voters is that, particularly during the health care debate,
0:43:20 > 0:43:22there some questions about his leadership ability,
0:43:22 > 0:43:26and how strong he was, and I think that Osama Bin Laden
0:43:26 > 0:43:29sort of answered a lot of those questions for people.
0:43:36 > 0:43:40Taking Bin Laden off the stage - very, very significant.
0:43:40 > 0:43:44It doesn't end the threat of terrorism, but it reduces
0:43:44 > 0:43:48Al-Qaeda's global appeal in a very meaningful and measurable way.
0:43:48 > 0:43:52When people look at the first four years of the Obama administration,
0:43:52 > 0:43:57clearly the crowning achievement was finding Bin Laden
0:43:57 > 0:43:59and eliminating Bin Laden.
0:44:07 > 0:44:10And there's a policy area highly controversial
0:44:10 > 0:44:16outside the United States but over which most Americans do back Obama -
0:44:16 > 0:44:20drone strikes to kill suspected terrorists overseas.
0:44:22 > 0:44:26The Commander in Chief doesn't need anyone's votes to do this.
0:44:26 > 0:44:32Obama decided to involve himself closely in who would die -
0:44:32 > 0:44:37not exactly what core liberal supporters expected from him
0:44:37 > 0:44:39when he arrived in the White House.
0:44:39 > 0:44:41He's very knowledgeable about national security issues.
0:44:41 > 0:44:44He speaks without a note, he knows the issues,
0:44:44 > 0:44:47he knows the cases, he knows the controversies.
0:44:47 > 0:44:50He knows our opinions, he knows our policies,
0:44:50 > 0:44:54he knows us by name, even though many of us haven't met him before.
0:44:54 > 0:44:58So he's clearly a president steeped in the substance of the issues,
0:44:58 > 0:45:01and yet he's had to make decisions which I think are the wrong ones
0:45:01 > 0:45:04for the country and for his own legacy.
0:45:04 > 0:45:07They're decisions where he's stayed the course with the Bush policies,
0:45:07 > 0:45:11much more than they'd like us to believe.
0:45:11 > 0:45:13And perhaps the most damning part of the Obama administration
0:45:13 > 0:45:16is the Judas kiss he gets from his former opponents
0:45:16 > 0:45:19who now congratulate him on seeing the light.
0:45:21 > 0:45:24Promising to be a collaborative president and to listen
0:45:24 > 0:45:28to different opinions is easy enough when you're campaigning.
0:45:28 > 0:45:31The reality can be quite different once you're in office,
0:45:31 > 0:45:33as some found out.
0:45:35 > 0:45:37When we shared with him our concerns,
0:45:37 > 0:45:41it was clear that that bothered him, that irritated him.
0:45:41 > 0:45:44I could tell from the body language and the interaction -
0:45:44 > 0:45:47the jaws clenching, the back straightening up,
0:45:47 > 0:45:50the somewhat dismissive attitude.
0:45:50 > 0:45:54We were brought in because we were told the president lived in a bubble,
0:45:54 > 0:45:56so we bring our perspectives outside the bubble,
0:45:56 > 0:45:59but those perspectives were not always welcomed.
0:46:02 > 0:46:06President Obama's political fate will be decided over the economy
0:46:06 > 0:46:09above all, but towards the end of the campaign those grand promises
0:46:09 > 0:46:14he made about foreign policy have come back to haunt him too.
0:46:14 > 0:46:15After the Arab Spring,
0:46:15 > 0:46:19far from America being loved in the Muslim world,
0:46:19 > 0:46:22consulates and embassies have been attacked
0:46:22 > 0:46:24and an ambassador's been killed.
0:46:24 > 0:46:27Iran - more dangerous than ever before.
0:46:27 > 0:46:33Afghanistan - bad news continues week after week.
0:46:33 > 0:46:37And as for a new start in the Middle East peace process,
0:46:37 > 0:46:43Obama's relationship with the government in Israel is, frankly, poisonous.
0:46:43 > 0:46:47These are not questions that he expected to have to be answering
0:46:47 > 0:46:49four years on.
0:46:49 > 0:46:51Hello there, everybody! Hello, hello!
0:46:51 > 0:46:54I brought some food. LAUGHTER
0:46:54 > 0:46:58So where does four years of power leave Barack Obama
0:46:58 > 0:47:01in this election campaign?
0:47:01 > 0:47:04Well, struggling is the short answer,
0:47:04 > 0:47:08and yet not out, despite the economics, despite the hostility -
0:47:08 > 0:47:09and why?
0:47:09 > 0:47:13Because in a matter of days, his core voters,
0:47:13 > 0:47:15including those striking teachers in Chicago,
0:47:15 > 0:47:18will come out for him again.
0:47:18 > 0:47:22There is enough of the old magic, the half-life of hope,
0:47:22 > 0:47:24still ticking away.
0:47:24 > 0:47:27Do you think that if he gets elected again,
0:47:27 > 0:47:31President Obama will be in a position to do more
0:47:31 > 0:47:33for people like yourself?
0:47:33 > 0:47:34We believe so, and we believe that
0:47:34 > 0:47:38when we help our president get back in office,
0:47:38 > 0:47:41we're also going to make sure that he's accountable
0:47:41 > 0:47:42to the people directly impacted.
0:47:47 > 0:47:50Whatever Obama's political roots,
0:47:50 > 0:47:54however he really feels in his waters about supporting
0:47:54 > 0:47:56this kind of movement,
0:47:56 > 0:48:01in an election he's probably got to turn his back a bit on it
0:48:01 > 0:48:06and not hear the voices being expressed so eloquently here.
0:48:07 > 0:48:10And meanwhile, on the other side, the centre-right,
0:48:10 > 0:48:15former supporters have already turned their backs on him.
0:48:15 > 0:48:18I left the Democratic Party because on all the issues
0:48:18 > 0:48:21that are being debated in the United States today
0:48:21 > 0:48:25I candidly found my views lining up more with Republicans than Democrats.
0:48:25 > 0:48:28I had been a member of the conservative wing
0:48:28 > 0:48:29of the Democratic Party.
0:48:29 > 0:48:32I saw that wing get a little bit smaller every year
0:48:32 > 0:48:35and I saw it virtually disappear in 2011.
0:48:36 > 0:48:39I was struck by the lack of creativity.
0:48:39 > 0:48:42I was struck by the lack of innovation.
0:48:42 > 0:48:45It seemed that what they were doing seemed very conventional -
0:48:45 > 0:48:49some dusting off a lot of ideas that had kicked around for a while
0:48:49 > 0:48:50on the left.
0:48:54 > 0:48:57He ran as a centrist. He was going to be a Bill Clinton problem-solver,
0:48:57 > 0:48:59we were going to meet in the middle and get things done.
0:48:59 > 0:49:02We've never had a more polarised Washington DC.
0:49:02 > 0:49:05We've never had a less effective economic and fiscal policy
0:49:05 > 0:49:08and monetary policy, quite frankly, in the last three years
0:49:08 > 0:49:10than we've had under Barack Obama, in my lifetime.
0:49:10 > 0:49:13'Maybe instead of attacking others on taxes,
0:49:13 > 0:49:15'Romney should come clean on his.'
0:49:15 > 0:49:19Republicans didn't make his life easier in Washington, ever -
0:49:19 > 0:49:21politics is a blood sport -
0:49:21 > 0:49:25and now Obama has started to punch back with a raw brutality
0:49:25 > 0:49:28that he once disdained.
0:49:28 > 0:49:32In the 2008 election, he said this.
0:49:32 > 0:49:35So we're not going to go around doing negative ads.
0:49:35 > 0:49:39We're going to keep it positive, we're going to talk about the issues...
0:49:39 > 0:49:42And in 2012, he did this.
0:49:48 > 0:49:51- TV BROADCAST:- 'Mitt Romney has used every trick in the book.'
0:49:51 > 0:49:53'Romney admits that over the last two years,
0:49:53 > 0:49:57'he's paid less than 15% in taxes on 43 million in income.
0:49:57 > 0:50:00'Makes you wonder if some years he paid any taxes at all.'
0:50:00 > 0:50:02'I'm Barack Obama and I approve this message.'
0:50:05 > 0:50:09For Republicans in Obama's famously roughhouse home city,
0:50:09 > 0:50:11this is familiar stuff.
0:50:11 > 0:50:14You can take the boy out of Chicago,
0:50:14 > 0:50:17but you can't take Chicago out of the boy.
0:50:18 > 0:50:23A lot of people, certainly from outside the US, have seen Obama as,
0:50:23 > 0:50:26you know, an attractively, almost apolitical figure,
0:50:26 > 0:50:28standing on the outside.
0:50:28 > 0:50:32Rather a pristine, clean-hands kind of political leader.
0:50:32 > 0:50:35Oh, I think you can see that culture on display in this campaign
0:50:35 > 0:50:38where, you know, the Obama campaign decided not to make this
0:50:38 > 0:50:40a campaign about substance.
0:50:40 > 0:50:43It's about killing Mitt Romney, taking him down,
0:50:43 > 0:50:44a character assassination.
0:50:44 > 0:50:48It's very much in line with the Chicago way of doing things
0:50:48 > 0:50:51politically, and I think you're seeing a textbook Chicago Democrat
0:50:51 > 0:50:55take-down playing out right now, in terms of how they're messaging this.
0:50:56 > 0:50:59Each side blames the other.
0:50:59 > 0:51:02Business as usual proved too powerful,
0:51:02 > 0:51:04and in Washington that does mean business.
0:51:04 > 0:51:08Political America is funded by rich America,
0:51:08 > 0:51:11meaning a tiny number of people who still do very well
0:51:11 > 0:51:16and who've scooped most of the little recent growth in the economy,
0:51:16 > 0:51:19who may not have much of a stake in deeper arguments
0:51:19 > 0:51:21about deeper problems.
0:51:25 > 0:51:29It's been argued that Wall Street has far too much influence,
0:51:29 > 0:51:33and we see President Obama going out with his cap, raising huge amounts
0:51:33 > 0:51:37of money in the run-up to this, and I just wonder how much of this is...
0:51:37 > 0:51:40I hesitate to use the words, but as an inevitable but corrupt bargain.
0:51:40 > 0:51:44Well, the American political system is a corrupted system.
0:51:44 > 0:51:49If politicians are raising billions of dollars of private money
0:51:49 > 0:51:52to run campaigns, you know that this cannot work.
0:51:52 > 0:51:56This isn't really representing the attitudes and the opinions...
0:51:56 > 0:51:57The middle class.
0:51:57 > 0:52:01..of the middle class, much less the poor, who also have a role.
0:52:01 > 0:52:04We don't even say the word "poor" in this country,
0:52:04 > 0:52:07because they don't contribute anything to the campaigns.
0:52:07 > 0:52:11And so the point is that the power of the interest groups
0:52:11 > 0:52:13is so enormous,
0:52:13 > 0:52:18the hold on politics, that whatever happens is utterly transactional.
0:52:20 > 0:52:22Well, that is politics.
0:52:22 > 0:52:27But America has seen so much of its wealth-creating muscle shifted away
0:52:27 > 0:52:32overseas, and its old hard-working middle class is so worried
0:52:32 > 0:52:36about the future that it really needs a better level of debate.
0:52:36 > 0:52:39A great president would be a President who confronted
0:52:39 > 0:52:41the stuff that mattered most, who fought,
0:52:41 > 0:52:47like 20th-century Democrats, for the country to take a different path.
0:52:48 > 0:52:51This is not a country in good shape, even though it's still
0:52:51 > 0:52:53the world's largest economy,
0:52:53 > 0:52:57it still has incredible talent, it still has a great
0:52:57 > 0:53:02technological dynamism, it still accomplishes wondrous things.
0:53:02 > 0:53:07But we have 15% of the population in poverty,
0:53:07 > 0:53:12we have one-in-six or one-in-seven on food stamps in this country,
0:53:12 > 0:53:17we have about half of our households within at least twice
0:53:17 > 0:53:21the poverty line or below, meaning that we have a staggering
0:53:21 > 0:53:24share of America that is financially struggling right now.
0:53:24 > 0:53:30We have the worst drought of modern times, we have food prices soaring,
0:53:30 > 0:53:35and neither candidate will say a word about it.
0:53:35 > 0:53:38So it's even worse than the reality.
0:53:38 > 0:53:43It's the broken politics next to that reality,
0:53:43 > 0:53:49and I don't see us lifting out of this any time soon.
0:53:54 > 0:53:59For Obama, whatever happens, it will never be glad confident morning again.
0:53:59 > 0:54:03He's fighting down to the wire for his political life.
0:54:07 > 0:54:09Some really bruising, bruising battles.
0:54:09 > 0:54:13You know, he's left people with more of a moderate view of him, a middling view.
0:54:13 > 0:54:16People actually like him, but they don't love him
0:54:16 > 0:54:20they way they loved him in 2008, and they think he's a human being now.
0:54:27 > 0:54:31He's a more fluent, cannier politician,
0:54:31 > 0:54:33far more experienced, far more savvy
0:54:33 > 0:54:36in navigating the ways of Washington.
0:54:36 > 0:54:39On the other hand, a part of what was compelling about Obama
0:54:39 > 0:54:42in the first place is that he really wanted to change
0:54:42 > 0:54:43the nature of politics.
0:54:45 > 0:54:48Callie Shell has kept on photographing the president
0:54:48 > 0:54:50and she's still close to him.
0:54:50 > 0:54:53She's certainly seen him change.
0:54:53 > 0:54:56He said, "You remember we thought the campaign was so hard?"
0:54:56 > 0:55:00He said, "That's nothing compared to what I've seen in the last four years."
0:55:01 > 0:55:04If somebody can live through everything you lived through
0:55:04 > 0:55:07as president and not be a different person,
0:55:07 > 0:55:11I think that is... You don't want that.
0:55:11 > 0:55:13So grizzled inside as well as out.
0:55:13 > 0:55:17He just seems as humble but maybe a little bit even more humble.
0:55:25 > 0:55:28A sadder and a wiser man, perhaps.
0:55:29 > 0:55:32In a matter of days, the American people will choose.
0:55:32 > 0:55:36Obama helped stop the collapse of American capitalism
0:55:36 > 0:55:39when he first arrived in office, but he hasn't really begun
0:55:39 > 0:55:44to change or reform a state system now heavily in hock to China,
0:55:44 > 0:55:49and an economy which has lost much of its old vitality.
0:55:49 > 0:55:52He lost the country's attention at a crucial time,
0:55:52 > 0:55:54and then he lost crucial elections, which means
0:55:54 > 0:55:58that he hasn't had the votes, and, perhaps more importantly,
0:55:58 > 0:56:02the authority a great president needs.
0:56:02 > 0:56:07Result, he is toe-to-toe with a Republican candidate once dismissed
0:56:07 > 0:56:11by liberal Washington as a no-hoper.
0:56:11 > 0:56:13Obama was given a hard hand to play,
0:56:13 > 0:56:16and then the odds were stacked against him,
0:56:16 > 0:56:21but now, on his watch, the card table has been kicked aside
0:56:21 > 0:56:22and anything might happen.
0:56:27 > 0:56:31I think it's pretty clear what happened to hope.
0:56:31 > 0:56:34The Republicans say this was a naive and inexperienced president,
0:56:34 > 0:56:38who offered far more than he could possibly have delivered
0:56:38 > 0:56:41and had no plan, and there is a lot of truth in that.
0:56:41 > 0:56:44And Obama's people counter by saying right from the beginning
0:56:44 > 0:56:48the Republicans in Congress were aggressively determined
0:56:48 > 0:56:50to frustrate everything he dreamed of,
0:56:50 > 0:56:52and that is also true.
0:56:53 > 0:56:57And so goes the partisan argument,
0:56:57 > 0:57:01and poor old hope gets squashed on the road in the middle of it.
0:57:02 > 0:57:05But I think this story has another level.
0:57:05 > 0:57:11It's also the story of too many years of politicians saying to the voters,
0:57:11 > 0:57:15"Support me and tomorrow your lives will be so much better."
0:57:15 > 0:57:18But instead of funding that honestly,
0:57:18 > 0:57:23through other spending cuts or raising taxes,
0:57:23 > 0:57:25they borrowed the money,
0:57:25 > 0:57:32and the result is a terrifying burden of debt hanging over America
0:57:32 > 0:57:35and hanging over many other countries, too.
0:57:35 > 0:57:39It's often said that one of the differences between the Americans
0:57:39 > 0:57:42and the British is that the Americans
0:57:42 > 0:57:46are much more inclined to believe in miracles,
0:57:46 > 0:57:49which is fair enough -
0:57:49 > 0:57:52unless you choose to worship a politician.
0:58:16 > 0:58:19Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd