I'm convinced in 100 years Obama will have an important place in the civic pantheon of American life.

Obamaism is the future of America.

Trump is what Obama critics think Obama is: Someone who's focused on symbolism rather than substance.

Donald Trump will be a tragedy, a sad joke in American history.

Liberals tend to romanticize the past, past leaders' failures.

It's possible that the clowning and the buffoonery and the entertainment are a bigger part of what's happening than we've allowed. And that Trump is primarily an entertainer who wants ratings, and an undisciplined speaker, and it will all be less than we think. It's something that we have to consider as a possibility; we don't know.

Activists measure progress against the standard of perfection, or at least the most perfect possible choice. Historians gauge progress against what came before it.