Inside Obama's White House

The Norma Percy juggernaut rolls on. she's the documentary producer who provides almost instant history, interviewing everybody that matters and then presenting it in a clear account, covering all the angles but not offering any kind of smug summary or slanted commentary. Detailed, meticulous reporting, which makes you feel you were there.

She's done it for former Yugoslavia, Arab-Israeli tension and probably many others I've forgotten, but the current series is an account of the Obama Presidency. And it breaks your heart. We always knew there were missed opportunities, commitments that weren't kept, but to replay in detail how chances were missed, how narrowly odds fell against him, is really sad. Worst of all is the tightening confidence of Republicans, that their role is simply to oppose and destroy, that there is no issue on which it might be sensible to make a judgement in the interests of the country as a whole. and if you feel that way, it's not that astonishing you should end up with a candidate like Donald Trump.