Your girlfriend’s intuition was absolutely right. Obama’s narrative as a historical figure began with his books, historic election and consolidated by the Nobel Peace price, even before he actually accomplished anything. The rest is just filling in the details. The real world events and our flagging economy merely served as distractions from him accomplishing his greatness.
Let me try explaining if I can. Solar cell captures light (photon) and converts them to electricity. They basically have sandwiched layer of semiconductor (like silicon), one almost positive, the other almost negative. When the light hit, the electron jumps out from one side to to the other (junction) therefore producing electricity, like battery. More light, more electritity.Common solar cells sold for calculator etc, in practice only convert about 10% of light to electricity. The rest just lost as heat. This is like car with low, 10 MPG. In theory, they can be like 20-30%. This newest one on the news is the latest generation triple junctions In-Ga-As-P. It has 40.8% efficiency, like 40MPG car, giving more electricity from sun.
In the same book, the author also decribed how China could fall apart from the inside triggered by an oil crisis, AIDS epidemics, ethnic uprising, and massive unemployment. It is not easy to balance economic growth and polical stability.