Barack Obama: How ‘Yes we can’ turned to ‘Sorry we couldn’t’

With the midterms comes the reckoning for a man who appeared to have it all, but failed to deliver

Columnist Robert Chesshyre

The United States goes to the polls on 4 November in a ‘general election’. Britons won’t hear much about it because the ‘midterms’ do not include election for the White House. But it does have great significance as all congressmen and women and one third of senators, together with many state governors, do run.

Once the votes are counted, Barack Obama will be well and truly into his ‘lame duck’ period, the final two years in office before he stands down. Whether he can achieve anything significant in this time is doubtful: US politics - the Tea Party and all - have become fractured to the point of impotence.

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Robert Chesshyre writes regularly on police culture and is a former US correspondent of The Observer. His books include ‘The Force: Inside the Police’ and 'When the Iron Lady Ruled Britain''.