Commentaries, Analysis, And Editorials -- January 12, 2016

President Barack Obama reacts while talking about Newtown and other mass killings during an event held to announce new gun control measures at the White House in Washington January 5, 2016. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

Robert L. Borosage, Reuters: Has Obama really changed America?

Is Barack Obama a transformational president? That was his ambition: to be more, as he put it, like Ronald Reagan than Bill Clinton, to launch a new era, not simply tack to the prevailing winds of the old.

Not surprisingly, as the president readies his final State of the Union Address, the issue is contested. Liberals like New York Times op-ed columnist Paul Krugman hail Obama as “one of the most consequential and, yes, successful presidents in American history.” Conservatives scorn his administration as a “socialist” interlude in a conservative time. On the left, many like Professor Cornel West are disappointed, seeing Obama as a “counterfeit” progressive who failed to seize a historic opportunity for progressive change.

Commentaries, Analysis, And Editorials -- January 12, 2016

Judging the Iran Nuclear Deal, Six Months In -- Ilan Goldenberg, National Interest

Why so many Lebanese are looking abroad -- Mona Alami, Al-Monitor

North Korea's 'H-bomb' shouldn't stop us calling out human rights atrocities -- Jack Hands, The Guardian

4 Myths About North Korea -- Dingding Chen, The Diplomat

Is China's President About to Make His First Trip to the Middle East? -- Shannon Tiezzi, The Diplomat

What is going on in China right now? -- Tyler Cowen, Marginal Revolution

The China Bubble -- Walter Russel Mead, American Interest

Start 2016 by Ending U.S. Ambiguity in East Asia -- Joseph A. Bosco, National Interest

Building Afghan Security Requires a Long-Term U.S. Commitment -- Lincoln Bloomfield, Defense One

Catalonia’s new president is even more secessionist than the last -- The Economist

Factbox: Haiti six years after the quake - What's changed? -- Anastasia Moloney, Reuters

The war on drugs is literally killing Mexico -- German Lopez, VOX

Why executive action may not solve Guantánamo for Obama -- Henry Gass, CSM

Will Sean Penn Be Prosecuted for His Clandestine Meeting with Fugitive Drug Kingpin 'El Chapo?' -- Susan Keating, People

Rolling Stone and 'El Chapo': Journalism or entertainment? -- Gloria Goodale, CSM