OPINION 4A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 18, 2017 Founded in 1873 DAVID F. PERO, Publisher & Editor LAURA SELLERS, Managing Editor BETTY SMITH, Advertising Manager CARL EARL, Systems Manager JOHN D. BRUIJN, Production Manager DEBRA BLOOM, Business Manager Water under the bridge Compiled by Bob Duke From the pages of Astoria’s daily newspapers 10 years ago this week — 2006 Obama’s presidency will endure test of time David Plechl/For The Daily Astorian Chris Brumitt, 10, of Astoria, enjoyed a day off school and headed outside to snowboard with friends last week. They improvised a jump, and those daring enough threw themselves at it. “This is a blast,” said Brumitt. “We don’t get that much snow around here.” The crab season has kept the U.S. Coast Guard busy in waters off the North Coast. A situation that began at about 2 a.m. Sunday ended with an eight-hour tow by a boat from Coast Guard Station Grays Harbor. The crew had been underway for nearly 13 hours by the time it returned from towing the 65-foot fishing vessel Betty Lee, which had broken down on Washington’s Queets River, said Senior Chief Jeff Gearhart, search and rescue controller at USCG Group Astoria today. Also Sunday morning, a 47-foot motor lifeboat crew from Station Cape Disappointment towed the 60-foot vessel Sunset Charge to safety after it lost its ability to steer off the Long Beach Peninsula. The Clatsop Community College Board of Directors is con- sidering another bond measure, but this time it would be aimed at building a new campus in Warrenton. “I think it seems clear to them that the voters have a prefer- ence,” CCC President Greg Hamann said today. “But (the direc- tors) haven’t made a decision.” How many gallons of gas are sold in Astoria during a year? The answer to that question will cost the city almost $2,000, but could lead to a big-dollar return. That’s because Astoria and Warrenton are considering a gas tax. If it’s approved, they would join the 12 other Oregon cities which tack on an aver- age of 3 cents per gallon. Under state law, the money must be used for street maintenance and repairs. 50 years ago — 1966 A new steamship company is being formed by Castle and Cooke, Inc. and Astoria will be one of its principal ports of call, company president Malcom MacNaughton told Chamber of Commerce members here Monday night at their annual dinner. MacNaughton said with acquisition of three surplus World War II C-4 cargo ships and possible construction of two 25-knot vessels, the world-wide Castle and Cooke enterprise will be haul- ing cargo from the Gulf and West Coasts to the Hawaiian islands in direct competition with Matson Lines, now the chief freight line to Hawaii. Castle and Cooke sold its share of Matson several years ago under pressure from the U.S. government. “I see no likelihood that Tongue Point will be closed as a Job Corps Cen- ter,” U.S. Rep. Wendell Wyatt said here Thursday during a brief visit to his home town. “As long as we have the basic Job Corps concept, I will battle to see that Tongue Point is maintained as an operating center,” he added. “I think the Job Corps concept will survive, although future of the entire Office of Economic Opportunity is uncertain,” he said. He predicted the Job Corps might be assigned to the Department of Labor and some other OEO programs, such as Head Start, might go to the Health-Education-Welfare Department if OEO is broken up. A new crankshaft for engine number one of the Coast Guard cutter Yocona arrived on board Tuesday afternoon to replace a shaft broken at sea earlier this month. The 12- foot- 7- inch long steel shaft was hoisted to the rear main deck and winched through passageways, then lowered to the engine room where it will be installed by Astoria Marine Construction company workmen. 75 years ago — 1941 Twenty representatives of Astoria’s automotive businesses and allied services met today in the county courthouse to discuss methods of inspec- tion and inspecting agencies in connection with the rationing of new auto- mobile tires. The meeting was called by Neil Morfitt, chairman of the Clatsop defense council, upon request by the governor. Tire rationing became effec- tive today and machinery was immediately devised to determining how, among those persons eligible for new tires, the certificate of inspection is to be provided and by whom. The Astoria school board has acquired without cost from the city and county a tract of 39 lots lying just east of Gyro field for use as a parking ground and ultimately for construction of a new high school building when and if it is necessary to build one. Clatsop County motor vehicle operators by noon today had purchased the 500 motor vehicle use stamps which arrived at the post office Friday afternoon and Hana Bue, assistant postmaster, estimated that probably 2,000 more stamps would be needed to fill the demand of owners in the immediate vicinity. AP Photo/Susan Walsh President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama help paint a mural of Martin Luther King, Jr., in the community room of the Jobs Have Priority Naylor Road Family Shelter in Washington, D.C., Monday. The mural, “Wall of Hope,” was created by artist Omatayo Akinbolajo. By DAVID LEONHARDT New York Times News Service W hen Barack Obama ran for president in 2008, he understood, without quite saying it, that there had been no highly successful Democratic presi- dent in decades. Bill Clinton made the country a better place, but his biggest legislative plans failed and he was beset by scandal. John F. Kennedy, though popular in retrospect, had his agenda stalled in Congress when he was killed. Harry Truman left office deeply unpopular. Jimmy Carter lost re-election. And Lyndon Johnson, despite grand domestic achievements, was driven from office. The chant “Hey, hey, LBJ, how many kids did you kill today?” doesn’t exactly suggest progressive heroism. This history of liberal disappoint- ment was the subtext of a revealing early comment from Obama: “Reagan changed the trajectory of America in a way that Richard Nixon did not and in a way that Bill Clinton did not.” The history also led Obama to reject the advice of his first Treasury secretary that their legacy should be preventing another depression. “That’s not enough,” Obama replied. It wasn’t enough because of the depth of the country’s problems. Soaring inequality. Unregulated Wall Street. Underperforming schools. Millions lacking health insurance. Climate change. More than a few times during Obama’s presidency, he has seemed to be following the pattern of liberal disappointment. The left would despair that he was too soft, while the right would cast him as either evil or hapless. Just when he seemed to have conquered his critics, the most shocking threat came along: the election of Donald Trump. In a few days, Trump and con- gressional Republicans will have the power to begin undoing Obama’s presidency. And yet they are going to have a harder time than many people realize. A clear explanation of why appears in a new book, “Audacity,” by Jonathan Chait of New York magazine, one of today’s must-read political journalists. He documents the scale of Obama’s domestic pol- icy, on health care, taxes, finance, climate, civil rights and education. Chait also explains why it won’t simply disappear. While Trump will obviously be able to reverse some policies, he will also face obstacles. First, some of Obama’s changes are popular, even if passing them was hard. Look at Obamacare. Republicans promise to repeal it, but have accepted Obama’s terms of the debate: They claim that they won’t take health insurance away. The baseline has been reset. ... A vast majority of Americans born in the past few decades share Obama’s vision. And history is ultimately written by the young. Second, Obama’s presidency unleashed changes that Washington doesn’t control. Many states have become less tolerant of poorly performing schools. Climate policy helped make clean energy increas- ingly cost-competitive, on its own. Third, Senate Democrats still have the ability to filibuster some Republican wishes, including the reversal of financial regulation. “The fatalistic conclusion that Trump can erase Obama’s achieve- ments is overstated — perhaps even completely false,” Chait writes. The book is a brave one, because journalists are usually loath to call a politician successful, for fear of being branded naive or partisan. We’re comfortable calling balls as balls, but prefer to criticize strikes as imperfect. (And all strikes, like all politicians, are indeed imper- fect.) As a result, we too often give an overly negative view of current events only to wax nostalgic about those same events decades later. In truth, Obama succeeded by taking a rigorous, evidence-based approach to government. He began trying to broker bipartisan deals and, when that failed, governed as a tough Democrat, with crucial help from Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid. Obama’s mistakes, like Syria, were serious, but no president yet has avoided serious errors. Obama leaves office as the most successful Democrat since Franklin Roosevelt. His effect on the “trajectory of America,” to use his benchmark, was certainly smaller than Roosevelt’s, but is in the same league as Reagan’s. Obama did more while in office, while Reagan better protected his policy changes, thanks to Republican gains in state and congressional elections — and the victory of his chosen successor. Obama’s glaring failure on that last count leaves his allies needing to fight, hard, to defend their suc- cesses, rather than to make further progress on problems that badly need it, like climate and inequality. But it’s a testament to the last eight years that progressives have so much to defend. “Any large scale of reorder- ing of power and resources in American life will inevitably face resistance, sometimes for decades,” Chait writes. It happened after Reconstruction, the New Deal and the civil rights movement. But by continuing to fight, through victory and setback, the advocates of a freer, more broadly prosperous country won many more than they lost. When future historians look back on today, they’re likely to come to a similar conclusion. They are also likely to believe that Obama’s vision of America was far superior to Trump’s. After all, a vast majority of Americans born in the past few decades share Obama’s vision. And history is ultimately written by the young.