CNN doc tracks the end of Obama presidency
Wednesday’s two-hour show follows White House staff through final two months
NEWYORK— Less than 48 hours before Barack Obama leaves office, CNN will air an intimate tribute told through the workdays and accounts of key White House staff members.
But however worthy it may be, this two-hour documentary, airing Wednesday at 9 p.m., may face a wary reception. For those who have disagreed with Obama’s policies and even questioned his citizenship the past eight years, this film is unlikely at such a late date to stir a reappraisal of his legacy or character.
Meanwhile, for others, the film will be yet another painful reminder of what will soon be over and what might have been.
Presumably without meaning to plumb the depths of despair gripping Obama’s supporters, the program strikes an elegiac chord with its title: The End: Inside the Last Days of the Obama White House.
Spanning the past two months, The End ends, fittingly, with Obama’s farewell address in Chicago.
It begins on election day, as Hillary Clinton’s electoral-college defeat by Donald Trump is received at the White House with shock and grief.
But then we see Obama bucking up his thunderstruck staff.
“Everybody is sad when their side loses an election,” the president says. “But we all have to remember we’re all on one team.”
Chief speech writer Cody Keenan, one of the figures followed through the documentary, crafted the president’s magnanimous remarks. In his windowless office in the White House basement, he concedes those words are “obviously not the ones I wanted to be writing.”
Another recurring character, press secretary Josh Earnest, gathers his crew to prep for a news conference as they scramble for grounding in the flood of events.
“Just don’t look at Twitter,” cracks one of his fellow writers.
Along with tying up the many loose ends of Obama’s presidency, these busy last weeks are devoted to arranging an efficient, secure hand-off to his successor.
“Our job is to turn it over to them in as good a shape as possible,” says Obama senior adviser Valerie Jarrett. (All agree that the transition team of president George W. Bush set a high standard for co-operation and comity that the Obama administration aspires to meet as it vacates.)
As the days count down, the film’s participants reflect on what they’ve experienced in bittersweet terms.
Counting their victories, the film’s subjects note with pride the Affordable Care Act and think back on the brawl that nearly derailed it.
“What I learned,” Jarrett says, “was how willing people in this town were to put their short-term political interests far ahead of what’s good for the country.”