US President Barack Obama is just six months into his second term in office, and the challenges facing the leader could not be further from the optimism that marked his first half year in office five years ago.
When he was sworn in for his second mandate in January, Obama vowed quick action and progress on a variety of left-leaning priorities, including higher taxes on the wealthy, immigration reform and gun control.
But six months later Obama is facing anger from allies abroad over a broad US spy programme and poor opinion ratings at home along with a recalcitrant Congress that won’t co-operate on domestic policy reforms.
Obama was re-elected on a message focused on reviving the still lagging US economy, but after an election that changed little in the divided US government there has been little room for him to manoeuvre.
The year began with a major win for Obama as he worked out a deal with Republican lawmakers that raised taxes on the rich, but that agreement later turned sour as it left in place across the board spending cuts designed to force a broader agreement on deficits. Republicans faced off with Obama to allow those cuts to go into effect.
US Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke said this week that massive cutbacks in spending at all levels of government was stunting US economic recovery, costing as many as 600,000 jobs, and presenting a major drag on consumption, growth and employment.
Obama also fell short of passing the major gun control legislation he had promised in the wake of last year’s Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Connecticut.
He faces further challenges in implementing his healthcare reforms passed in his first term.
In international politics, he has faced challenges from Syria, where he has moved to provide arms to rebels, to Egypt, where the administration has stopped short of calling the military ouster of president Mohamed Mursi a coup. He renewed his pledge to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, but faced pressure following a long detainee hunger strike.
European allies have increasingly sought to distance themselves from a massive spying programme by the National Security Agency (NSA) that gathered US phone records and international Internet traffic. The former NSA contractor, Edward Snowden, who released the information to the media, has sought temporary asylum in Russia, adding fuel to already tense relations with Moscow.
Immigration reform looks to be Obama’s best hope for a major policy initiative, after Senate passage of a bill that would offer a pathway to citizenship for 11mn people in the country illegally. But the reforms face a far tougher road in the Repubican-controlled lower House of Representatives.