Obama faces second-term challenges

As US President Barack Obama prepares to be sworn in public for his second term this afternoon, he will also be making history. Not of the first African-American in the White House, but of taking his oath 150 years after Abraham Lincoln’s emancipation proclamation and nearly 50 years after civil rights leader Martin Luther King made his landmark “I have a dream” speech.

Obama’s inauguration is being held on what is celebrated as Martin Luther King Day in the US, after he was already sworn in yesterday, in a double ceremony that has happened only once before in the country’s history.

However, this is where many of Obama’s critics say the comparisons must end.

It is significant that King spoke of the US being “the greatest purveyor of violence in the world” and was killed during a labour strike over refuse collectors’ salaries, while Obama’s greatest achievement in his first term, was to have Al Qaeda mastermind Osama bin Laden killed in a commando operation on foreign soil.

The president’s ethnicity has become almost an aside to the main issues at hand as Obama takes power once more. Americans are worried by the shrinking economy, their personal safety as the debate on assault rifles rages, and the US role in foreign conflicts.

Even in a world without bin Laden, the US has no dearth of stubborn adversaries – from splinter Al Qaeda groups to homegrown terrorism. The costly wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, a legacy bequeathed by the George Bush presidency, have slowly been taken over by drone strike squads that have entrusted the killing to unmanned aircraft. The irony of this happening on Obama’s watch – after he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize – cannot be overemphasised.

Economy-wise, the middle class in America, vanishing as companies struggle to recover their glory days, is being squeezed further, as retirement funds look shaky and the “millennial” generation graduates with fancy degrees and a huge student debt, with no guarantee of employment.

While the Bush-era taxes will linger for all but the wealthy, and deficit spending persists, most Americans would prefer to see the emergence of a system that works, even if it means that Obama must write new rules. With bipartisan squabbling becoming a regular feature of Obama’s first tenure (notably the fiscal cliff showdown in the New Year), the average American’s fate is tied up in how smoothly the wheels of administration are oiled.

The Social Security payroll tax cut has raised taxes, and the 2010 healthcare law that will be implemented next year envisages a fine for those who don’t have health insurance.

Amid all this is the usual slowdown expected of all second term-presidencies in the later years.

As in the first term, President Obama is likely to have his hands full trying to satisfy those who voted him to office this time as well.