E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSS
Robin Buckson / AP
The president's first four years at the White House in pictures.
Just 11 weeks removed from a sweeping re-election victory, President Barack Obama has hit the ground running with an ambitious second-term agenda that includes tackling the mounting national debt, immigration and gun control.
But the window in which the president has any hopes of meeting his aggressive goals has already begun to close.
Confronting the fading effectiveness of a second-term presidency, dogged opposition from Republicans in Congress and unexpected hurdles that will inevitably arise over the next four years, Obama must act with a sense of urgency on his plans, particularly amid the fiscal cliff negotiations.
“Second-term presidents generally get eight months or so ... where there's a honeymoon to push an agenda,” said James Thurber, the director of Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies at American University. “He doesn't even have a month.”
Newly armed with “Organizing for Action” – the remnants of the president’s campaign structure, converted to a nonprofit for advocacy purposes – Obama has suggested he will indeed act quickly on his top priorities.
NBC News presidential historian Michael Beschloss points out that the US needs a president who is also going to suggest things that are not raised by an event of national magnitude, and that was something we saw a lot of in Obama's speech Monday.
But the next few months might well test the limits of the political capital that the president won in November, which saw Obama score a decisive victory over Republican opponent Mitt Romney and Democrats add seats in the House and the Senate.
If this past December’s lame duck Congress – in which Obama won higher tax rates for the wealthy, but only after a bitter fight with Republicans – offers any lessons, it’s that the GOP is equally committed to pursuing its own priorities, making compromise just as elusive as before.
The fiscal cliff fight will extend into this spring, when the government hits a series of major deadlines to keep the government funded and prevent a default on the national debt. That bare-knuckled fight could make or break Obama’s hopes of accomplishing much else on his agenda.
“I don't believe that he can wait until the last minute to deal with the debt ceiling and sequestration,” said Martin Frost, a former Democratic congressman from Texas. “That's got to be worked out during February.”
That fight would threaten to consume much of the political oxygen in Washington in any normal year. And Obama’s ability to pivot toward his other major priorities, gun violence and immigration, may well hinge upon how quickly and cleanly he can dispense with this spring’s spending fight.
TODAY's Lester Holt reports from Washington D.C. on how the struggles and victories of President Obama's first term have set the stage for opportunities of the second.
History suggests that many presidents cannot hope to accomplish much in the last two years of their term, when the jockeying for the next presidential campaign begins. And with midterm elections looming in 2014, lawmakers will inevitably turn at some point from governing to politicking.
"There's kind of an arc of achievement in presidential administrations. Usually the first few months of a new administration is where most of the accomplishment takes place," said Ross Baker, a presidential historian at Rutgers University. "It's hard to imagine getting another piece of legislation of the magnitude of the Affordable Care Act in the second term."
And Obama’s hopes of significant reforms to immigration and gun laws might well depend upon how well (or how poorly) the spending fight with Congress proceeds.
The president last week laid out a series of measures intended to curb gun violence, most significantly proposals to limit the size of ammunition magazines, ban assault weapons and require universal background checks on firearm purchases. That plan won little praise from Republicans, and Obama might have to lean upon any reservoir of goodwill he has left after the spending fight to reach his goals.
Obama is practically obligated to attempt immigration reform after soothing the Latino community during last year’s election about his inability to follow through with a pledge to accomplish immigration reform in his first term. If re-elected, Obama told Hispanic voters, he would make immigration reform a priority in this second term.
Both proposals could engender significant Republican resistance, a phenomenon familiar to any observers of Obama’s first four years in office.
Another significant – and unpredictable – variable that could ruin even the best-laid plans involves the unknown crises that will inevitably arise during Obama’s second term.
The "Meet the Press" moderator looks ahead to Monday's inaugural address, predicting President Obama will discuss economic relief and how he'll tackle America's toughest issues in a divided political atmosphere that's still "toxic" for the White House.
A foreign policy crisis could always erupt and consume the president’s attention. Uprisings in Egypt, Libya and Syria, for instance, proved to major developments during Obama’s first four years in office.
If anything, the president’s first term offered a cautionary tale of how difficult it can be to navigate the obstacles to success that can arise.
The president nearly saw his signature health reform law go down to defeat after the advent of the Tea Party movement, for instance.
And external events – a near-meltdown of the economy, mass shootings, the Gulf of Mexico oil spill and other crises – consumed as much of the president’s first term as anything else.
Just as foreign policy could prove to be a diversion from policy making, it’s one of the few policy areas where a lame-duck president can leave a legacy.
For instance, Bill Clinton, in the waning days of his presidency, concentrated on achieving an elusive peace deal between Israelis and Palestinians.
“He's got a whole range of things on his plate right now,” Frost said of Obama, “it just really depends on how he prioritizes things.”
Leave a Comment:
I wish the President would seek a comprehensive plan to restore America to true economic growth.This trickled down and or stimulus desired approach are mostly ineffective.For starters,he should come together with the Fed,treasury and redirect the massive amount of revenue being poured into the market.Although ,he missed it with the housing effort,he could still do it it with unemployment.Using a small fraction of the same appropriations ,the FED should use the funds to partner with retirement firms to get millions to retire if 62 or older and the government would still get a revenue return.The FED could guarantee a low interest rate to these retirees , if needed,which would be better than the no interest rates for the market which is hurting Treasury .Options like this ,reduces the size of the government without layoffs, let companies downsize ,create job vacancies ,and spur growth.The FED throughout this crisis has spent trillions to stabilize the credit market,but almost nothing to directly stabilize the heart of the economy. Although there are many extremely important issues,Mr.Obama ,unlike the first term when he was all about healthcare,should use his resources to get America economically stable first.
Im sorry but I am missing your point here, maybe it is the early start to my day, or not enough coffee. Please explain how the FED "partnering" with retirement firms and lowering interest rates to get millions to retire, would have "revenue" returned?
The FED does not "have" money, the money it HAS, has already been taken from the "private sector" through taxation, so if the FED "injects" money back into the economy, it is simply "putting back" money removed.........A WASH...................it cannot "stimulate" anything.
take ouir guns away, blow more money, play more basket ball, play more golf, become a socialist. backed by unions., latinos and dummies. hurraaaaah!
LOL... I love this. In his first term he promised that if unemployment went over 5.6% he would be a one term president. Magically, just before the last election the unemployment goes down .01% from 8.0% to 7.9% and his followers never question what happened. During his first term, while the unemployment goes up from around 5% to over 10%, he manages to shove Obamacare down our throats. Since then my company promises to drop my health care as they have no choice. I guess I should be happy I have a job even though it's a 3rd of what I made and in another state so I lost my house and good credit.
And now I'm supposed to listen to another one of his speeches with a bunch more promises and listen to his followers say how great he is.
DL
I told my brother to pick 5-17-18-24-36 one day on a lottery ticket, "HE WON", Does that mean "I can collect"?
Obama care has been proven a real budget breaker...OHH, we dont have a budget..lol
And as far as Clinton is concerned, Do some research..Clinton is a huge supporter of the communist structure and if he gets his way we will have a "NEW WORLD ORDER" yeppers, One bank, one goverment.
The sheeple have no Idea because this is like a chess game, and we the sheeple are the pawns. Slowly but surely we will be broke in America, thus JUSTIFYING the new currency
Step one complete
Step two, DISARM the sheeple so the cant resist, (Remember; The goverment just bought and ensured the delivery of 5 BILLION rounds of ammunition.
Step 3 is a little bit on the subtle side, devide the people, so it will trying to resolve this issue so that they never see stage 4 comming, Remember the enternment camps that Clinton Revived..Hmm, Sheeple thought that he was doing this for the terrorist issue starting to brew in his term, But guess what,
"You either obey or be confined and be reeducated."
So DL..find another thread to play your Obamapropogandi crap on Please.
fish....
Coo-koo.....coo-koo......coo-koo....coo-koo.......
Put your tin foil hat back on compadre....the gubmint is redin yer mynd!
As I've told/asked others in your clown show.....why are you having such a hard time convincing people that what we are seeing is "propoganda"? Oh yeah, primarily because Obama took and economy shrinking at 9% per quarter (December, 2008) to one growing at 3.1% (December, 2012). Thems pretty smart sheep!
Doctor Logic ~ thanks for your sensible, intelligent posts. There are too few of them on here ~ but many are good for a chuckle, don't you agree? SMH!!!
He was a joke 4 years ago, has been a worse joke for the past 4 years, and will be a bigger joke at the end of the next 4 years. He is and allways will be the Campaigner in Chief, The King of Spending, the Star Awaiting his next photo OP.
Steve Smith, yeah he was a joke, that is why he got elected. And he was a worse joke this time, that is why he got re-elected. When they were giving out brains, you were standing behind the door.
LOL!!!!! Good one, Truth!!!!
Obama is anti-business, anti-middle class and a socialist. By most measurements we are in far worse shape. He is clueless about jobs. In short, Obama is a Lazy, Arrogant, Corrupt (even by Chicago standards) imbecile. I never though I would see the day that someone made W look like a Rhodes Scholar, but that day is here.
Say what you want, but the economy is bad, and is going to get worse now that Obama has increased taxes. Increasing taxes has always been used to slam on the economic brakes. Clueless, truly clueless...
Mirage, STFU, Obama was re-elected by a majority of American voters/citizens. You don't like it, you can always catch and plane and get the fack out. ho ho ho.
TBT
If you are going to tell the truth do it 46 million Food stampers and welfare babies voting for him. Those that work did not.
And seeing how freeloaders now seem to be out numbering the workers (soon) of course they are going to vote for the one that hands out free thing.
The tragedy of this statement is that in another year or two, these will be the same people who will be completely disenfranchised because Obama has not lived up to any of his promises. Nothing worse than defending a person who betrays you in the end.
1000 dollars to see Inauguration speech
10 dollars for Obama number one hand
200 dollars to his Inaugural Ball
Too hear the Republicans Bitch and Cry Priceless!
GOP Bumper Sticker:
Greed, GOLD, GOD, GUNS.
Well to hear you Piss & Moan in 4 years will be far louder cry than any Republican today!
Funny how 40 can't say anything GOOD about Obama, just how much he costs.
Itsabouttime - Greed=holding on to my own money instead of Obama taking it and giving it to people that will vote for him.
Gold=is something I seem more of in Obama supporters mouths than on myself so you can take that one out.
God=what a great country was originally founded on and as He as been slowly taken out, this great country has been going down hill.
Guns=something my second amendment right gives me protection with but like many of my "rights" will also be taken away.
Greed = 54 BILLION to the fossil fuel industry while they make record profits, which means we PAY HIGHER TAXES. Tax cuts for corporations that export jobs to OTHER COUNTRIES. Yeah, we pay higher taxes because of that too and lose JOBS.
Gold = Ask Romney about this one.
GOD = Is not mentioned anywhere in the United States Constitution. We have freedom of religion, but that means we also have FREEDOM of Religion. We were NOT FOUNDED on God, the founding fathers were deitiest. We have a clear separation of church from state.
GUNS " What part of well regulated "militia" do you not get? I am a gun owner, but I don't need an assault rifle to defend myself. If you do, you're a poor shot and should go back to the gun range.
P.S. The GOP wants to regulate women's vaginas more than guns.
ItsAboutTime
P.S. The GOP wants to regulate women's vaginas more than guns.
That is because we are tired of paying for you to lay in bed and spit welfare babies out I have to pay for.
And it is funny how you welfare babies hate those that make their money...
Sweeping VICTORY? You mean the small few blue area's around the slums and low income housing areas we saw on the map during the poling night that he offered FREE stuff to, or the BLUE states that have to be FINANCIALLY supported by the RED states! His biggest challenge will be when he stops hiding behind the children of Conn and starts working on the real American issues, Jobs, Budget, Immigration and his failed Obama Care which they all just started to read now that they have passed it! His claim to higher taxes on the wealthy, really, I was slammed for an extra 42.00$ a week, I only make around 7-800.00 weekly. I know there are families making FAR LESS, but that definitely doesn't put me in the RICH category!
Right now the congress could take up the American Jobs Act from last year that would add 2 million jobs to the economy (per the CBO). All Boner has to do is bring it up for debate......
The reason why your check was $42 larger the last 2 or 3 years was because of what Obama did with the "making work pay" tax credit and then the "payroll tax holiday"......the GOP voted against BOTH of those measures.
Wrong doctor, it's because of what Bush did.
Kenny...
A perfect example of lunacy on the right....when all else fails, simply make **** up.
Dude, why even bother? Or I suppose you'll say Forbes is a "lefty organization" now......
http://www.forbes.com/sites/anthonynitti/2013/01/14/dear-america-your-higher-payroll-taxes-are-not-the-result-of-a-tax-increase/
...And Obama is on the wrong side of all three issues. He doesn't know how to stop spending. He can't take away our guns, and illegal alien means they've broken the law.
Gregorio-392454, just got a presidential memo from Obama to you..
STFU!! ha ha ha
Obama is on the RIGHT side of all three issues. He's not trying to take your guns away - he is UPHOLDING the same legislation that REAGAN did on assault weapons. He knows CONGRESS (Article 1 - Section 8) is responsible for spending.. and by all means, those GOP love to spend 2 BILLION On bombers and subsidize israel.
We got a TROLL PARTY going on.. Every right wing dip chit is here posting. Oh boy.. I just invented a "mouth clamp", and I want to try it out on leftisfascist since he got the biggest yap. Ho ho ho.
When I clamp on the "mouth clamp" to leftisfascist's mouth, I will bring the "chit truck" and lower the ramp right into leftisfascist's mouth. That way, I can pour a ton of chit right down leftisfascists mouth. Since he is a piece of chit anyway, I am giving him all the chit he can eat. Don't worry, there is enough on the "chit truck" for the rest of the right wing dip chits that have been trolling around here. Got a lot of mouth clamps too. Ho ho ho
Our controllers understand how our mind works, how our logic works, feeding all sorts of data knowing we will come to the "correct" conclusions. These conclusions are all fake of course, but they are the "correct" authorized conclusions and we go through life as a good debt slave, never realizing or asking the tough questions. When you do ask the tough questions most will never figure out why there’s a whole big class of people above us, who live off of us. These who feed off us include the big corporations, never mind all the politicians and their families who get their share too. It’s been like this for an awful long time, and certainly the big players who have brought in this system did document their plans a long time ago, well over a hundred years ago, of bringing in a scientifically controlled society and techniques of behaviorism and neuroscience. We are guided to all of our conclusions. The only real purpose that we have is to go through life, pay taxes, and be very obedient to the ever changing system.
This is the truth we are constantly steered away from. Nothing is new under the sun. Every big event is planned many years in advance.
The Right Wingers CAN'T SHOOT!! They can't hit the side of a barn. Why else would they want 30 to 100 round magazines?? So, they can SPRAY AND PRAY!! ha ha ha..
Since this place is crawling with right-wing-dip-chits, I am calling a party for all right wing dip chits. I be serviing NRA-KOOL-AID and RIGHT-WING-CHIT-SANDWICHES. ho ho ho
the msn page draws you in saying the debt is a priority then you get to the write up and it says debt fight. that says it all. democrats you have the senate and wh, you own the economy and budget what is your plan? you've largely used up the election bounce you got, here's a novel idea pass a budget.
Man, what a bunch of sick puppies are on here today. Such hatred for our President. Live with it, guys, or just pop a vessel and be done with it.
I don't hate him... he's the best stand up comedian on the biggest stage on the plant. He's a joke, get it?
Best gun's salesman in the world too.....
Run up still more debt, do not pass a budget, take away guns and rights and open the immigration doors to insure more years of failed demo rule. Just what America needs, more people who are dependent on Big Government to survive because they cannot do so on their own. Yep, he's got his agenda and priorities. Just not the ones that appeal to me. Hang onto your shorts, the next four years will be a bumpy ride down a slippery slope to the bottom whereupon Barry Soeroto can bask in the change he promised.
TruthBe,
Why not argue a point instead of childish, name-calling? What do you think about this?
Guns make women the self-defense equal of men.
Gregorio-392454, the point was made on NOVEMBER 6, 2012. Where the fack you been?
We voted, you and the rest of the dip chits trolling big time.
Name calling?? if I had a penny for everytime one of you trailer park nut cases called the president a name, I be rich..
Again, my point, along with my vote, and others was made on November 6, 2012, you been out to lunch.
But that's the Prez as you call him no you...
Andrew Cuomo made many citizens and even the police, criminals with his idiotic gun restrictions.
Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize. Has another sitting president won the prize?
Obama will go down as one of the greatest presidents of all time. Why? Because he has to soar like an Eagle around so many rightwing turkeys.. ha ha ha
Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize. That right there is a joke. Why? Here is 90% of what I heard in 2008 - "He will be the first black president". Not once did I hear "is he any good?" "does he have the experience it takes?". Nope. All we heard was "Hope and Change" and "the first black president". And even now you claim he soars like an eagle but nothing to back that up. Tell me about the unemployment rate? Tell me about the economy and the housing market? Tell me about Obama telling the Russian president he would have more leverage after November when discussing nuclear arms? Can you imagine your anger if Bush had done that?
Come on! Tell me how divided the country is?? Why is that? Because he is black? That's you're ONLY reason? Or is it because you won't admit it's because he's NOT a good president. He's a man of empty promises.
Kennyboys, old Ronald Reagan, to help with the employment figures, he listed the ARMED SERVICES AS EMPLOYED, and to take money away from the poor, and give to the arms bulders, he made "katchup" a vegetable! No, you are the joke, not Obama. Obama is the most powerful man in the world, you are a two bit troll on the internet. On to your points. He got a bad bag handed to him, plus the GOP is has a agenda to make Obama fail. So, that is why they are against everything he does. That my friend is why we are in this soup. But, things are getting better. In 2014, we will rid congress of all the tea-baggers and replace them with lawmakers that want to move this country forward.
We move this country forward by voting for the people that share your view, not by trolling on internet.
@ TBT
Are you not trolling too?
Obama has done nothing but be Black and he can't even do that right with a white mom can he?
So as being the 1st Black prez no on two counts.
1st He is not a prez but a dictator
2nd He is not a full black man but a mix breed want to be black.....
So let's keep the 1st black Prez for a true black man not a creamer...
How much money does Obama need from Americans? What is the actual dollar figure that will satisfy him?
Gregorio-392454, you don't seem like one of those real haters. With that said, look at the chit that Bush did?
Not only squandered our economy, but he sent our brave men and women to a bull chit war that was concocted on lies! Now, we have to clean up all the mess. The mess of the corperate well fare, and the good old boy system A real fix of a tough problem is not going to be easy. You cannot please everybody, you got to go what is good for the majority. That is what this president is doing. if there wasn't so much hate, I think Obama would have lost. But, the Romney camp had HATE on their side, whereas, Obama had a glilmpse of "fairness". that is why he got vote and got elected two times.
All this whining ain't doing jack. What will help, and what I did a long time ago, was to roll up my sleeves and get out there and work for someone that shares like views and support them. I didn't troll the internet, I got people to go out and vote. That is how you go about change. Name calling and slinging hate will backfire almost everytime.
No way, I thought I would see a black men in the white house in my lifetime. However, there was so much hate out there, that it made it happen in 2008, and repeated in 2012.
Hope you understand my points.
@TBT
Please it was not hate that got him back in. It was all the free loading roaches that came out of the dark because he was some what of a black man.
Color is tha only reason he is is office because it is not his leadership.
To my mentally challenged on the right,
December, 2008 GDP just shrank 9% for the fourth quarter (guess who was President...it wasn't Obama)
December, 2012 GDP just grew 3.1% for the fourth quarter (guess who was President...it WAS Obama)
Obama turned the economy around to the tune of +12.1% GDP growth.....why should we give two ****s about what any Republican has to say about the economy...or any subject for that matter?
The good news is that less and less people do care about what they have to say....hence the shellacking in November.
Great....your reply is by simply cutting and pasting ideologic drivel from Ron Paul. Sorry.....but the nonsense you just posted has absolutely NOTHING to do with the stat I posted above.
People are already complaining about the increased payroll tax coming out of their checks. Wait until Obamacare really starts hitting their wallets.
fascist....
Tell you what...given I started the conversation, why don't you try and tell me that the numbers I gave you above are "spin". And if it is "spin", explain how it is so........
Then, I'll deal with your nonsense.
Greg....
You mean the temporary tax cut that was put in place by Obama several years ago? It is kind of foolish to rip on Obama for a tax cut HE put in place.....and every GOPer voted against.
Only in fascist's mind is the actual measure of how the economy is doing "irrelevant".
So let me get this straight.....somehow, the Democrats in congress are to blame then, not the President.........but now it isn't the GOP led House, it is all the President??
Fascist, you are a genuinely stupid human being.
After the end of the ’81–’82 recession unemployment fell sharply as growth expanded dramatically. Twenty-seven months after the official end of that recession, unemployment had fallen to 7.5 percent from a peak of 10.8 percent.
At the same point after the recent recession, unemployment had fallen not 3.3 percentage points, but only 1.4 percentage points. The reason is not hard to find. In the seven quarters following the ’81–’82 recession, GDP growth averaged 7.1 percent (on an annual basis). In the current post-recession span it has averaged only 2.8 percent.
We need 2.5 percent growth just to absorb increases in the work force. The first quarter of 2011 had only a 1.8 percent increase in GDP.
But Reagan’s low-tax-rates, less-regulation, America-is-the-hope-of-the-world philosophy also differs sharply from Obama’s, in which taxing the rich, turning always to the government for answers, and America-causes-the-world’s-problems are cherished principles.
http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2011/04/29/reagan-recovery-vs-obama-recovery/
Procrustes...
Your analogy makes no sense.....and it doesn't deal with the numbers I posted above. To equate what Reagan was dealing with to what Obama had to deal with is absolutely ridiculous.
Doctor Logic
If you had any logic you would understand.
1st jobs dropped in 2008 because all feared what a Dem prez was going to do, and at that time GOP had no one so we knew they was going to lose.
2nd 2012 wow you took those numbers from holiday hiring and government hiring.
So everything you have been posting is false so far but hey you are on a streak...
Why did my Italian immigrant grandparents have to follow the law to come here? Why don't business answering machines give us an option to hear the menu in 'Italian'?
The article failed to mention expensive vacations, lavish shopping sprees and U.S. Marine escorted trips for his daughters.
Obama is wrong on most of the important issues in America, regardless of him winning the election. Slavery was the law of the land. It was legal. Was it right?
Nothing is more pathetic than a slave who believes that he is free.
We have become the new Soviet Union.