The Trans-Pacific Partnership and a President’s Legacy

The New York Times: WASHINGTON — For more than six years, the short walk from the Oval Office downstairs to the Situation Room has all too often meant bad news or grim choices. Whether it was war in the Middle East, Russian aggression in Ukraine or the hunt for terrorists around the globe, President Obama’s foreign policy has felt consumed by guns and drones.

So the 12-nation trade deal Mr. Obama has been negotiating in Asia took on special meaning for a president eager to change the world. It was a way to leave behind a positive legacy abroad, one that could be measured, he hoped, by the number of lives improved rather than by the number of bodies left behind. And if the Pacific really is the future, Mr. Obama wanted to position the United States to lead the way.

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