History will be kinder to the first two years of Barack Obama’s administration than the electorate next Tuesday. (That’s because history mostly gets written by gutless liberals, you can hear conservatives snort.) But history loves lists and the record of the 44th president and the universally despised 111th Congress boasts an array of legislative accomplishments unrivalled since Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society years of the 1960s and the momentous opening charge of the New Deal in 1933. Facing his own midterm debacle in 1994, Bill Clinton, (now by a long way, the most popular politician in America), had nothing remotely comparable to run on. Between Mr Obama’s twin peaks of regulatory reform of the financial industry and healthcare, are unsung acts of excellence that speak to the gross inequities of American society: the delivery of medical insurance to 11m children hitherto deprived of it; legislation enabling women to bring legal action against employers who fail to offer equal pay for equal work; prohibitions against credit card companies jacking up interest rates without warning to extortionate levels.
历史对巴拉克•奥巴马(Barack Obama)执政头两年的评价，肯定要比2010年11月2日的选民仁慈得多。（你可以听到保守派人士不屑一顾地说，这是因为历史多半是由没有出息的自由派人士书写的。）但历史喜爱清单，让第44任总统和受到普遍鄙视的第111届国会引以自豪的，是一连串立法成就，自林登•约翰逊总统(Lyndon Johnson)上世纪60年代提出“大社会”(Great Society)计划、以及1933年罗斯福提出影响深远的新政(New Deal)以来，没有其他总统或国会能够与之相比。1994年，面对中期选举溃败的比尔•克林顿(Bill Clinton)，拿不出任何与之相比的政绩——可如今克林顿成了美国遥遥领先的民望最高的政客。介乎奥巴马金融业监管改革和医改这两个事业高峰之间的，是一系列不为人所知的为民谋利之举，直指美国社会的严重不平等：为1100万此前没有医保的儿童提供医保；立法让女性能够对未做到同工同酬的雇主采取法律行动；禁止信用卡公司在未发出警告的情况下，就将利率提升至敲诈水平。