COLUMNISTS Barack Obama came to the White House with the ambition to nudge his country to the left – to make the US a bit less like the US and a little more like Europe. He recognised his nation’s great strengths, he said, but wanted to address its weaknesses. Inequality was getting out of hand; schools were letting children down, especially those from poor families; the safety net had too many holes, especially the failure to guarantee access to health care.
A revision to the social contract was required. But nothing too radical, he implied: it could all be put right without undoing the “American exception”.
