But the president headed into 2010 with several hurdles to implementing his legislative agenda, which included a major financial regulatory reform package and a jobs bill. At the start of that year, he assumed a more populist tone and proposed a spending freeze in his 2011 budget for discretionary spending, along with a tax on big banks to calm public furor over large compensation packages.

Though those initiatives seemed designed to channel a middle course, they angered the president’s liberal base, which wanted the public option included in the health-care measure. Obama’s left-flank was also irate about a December 2009 decision to send 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan.

The president paid in the 2010 midterm elections that saw the rise of the tea party and the loss of the House majority to Republicans and the seizing of six Senate seats by the GOP.

Despite those setbacks, the former community activist and one-term Illinois senator has already ushered in change in a variety of ways: through his race as the nation’s first African-American president, and through his potentially revolutionary political tactics that involved reaching out to average citizens through the Internet in unprecedented ways.

On April 4, 2011, Obama announced he intended to run for reelection to a second term in 2012 with a low-key video on his web site, which touted the slogan “Are You In?”

His reelection may be influenced by the successful May 2011 U.S. raid to capture and kill al-Qaeda leader and the man behind the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center, the world’s most-wanted terrorist, Osama bin-Laden. bin Laden was found hiding in Abbottabad, Pakistan.

ON THE ISSUES

Barack Obama on the Economy

When Obama first won the presidency in the wake of the 2008 financial meltdown, he touted a bipartisan approach to politics, but struggled to get support for his flagship initiative: a $787 billion stimulus package that included large tax cuts and more government spending. A year afterwards, the bill was used as proof that Obama was a profligate spender and had racked up irresponsible deficits.
» Transcript : Text: Obama’s State of the Union Address
» Article : Plotting path in Congress for an economic plan

Barack Obama on Energy

As president, Obama has advocated renewable energy sources as a way to reduce America’s dependence on foreign oil and pushed to reduce the effects of climate change. His administration’s EPA was accused of stretching the limits of the Clean Air Act to reduce emissions standards without passing new legislation in Congress.
» Blog post : White House advances its energy policy without help from polarized Congress
» Blog post : Reheated proposals

Barack Obama on Foreign Policy

In his 2008 campaign, Obama pledged to end America’s wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The following year he ordered a 30,000 troop “surge” to Afghanistan at the same time he ordered combat brigades home from Iraq. In 2011, Obama presided over the mission that killed al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, who was found hiding in Pakistan.
» Article: Osasm bin Laden buried at sea after being killed by U.S. Forces
» Transcript: Transcript of Obama speech on Afghanistan

Barack Obama on Health Care

Only a few months after taking office, Obama and his team began the push for an overhaul of the American health-care system that Obama had promised in his 2008 campaign. The result, 2010’s Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, was one of the most significant--and controversial--pieces of health-care legislation in history.
» Article: House passes health-care reform bill without Republican votes
» Article : How should Obama reform health care?

Barack Obama on Medicare Reform

Obama has said American cannot recover from its economic crisis without getting financial control of entitlement programs including Medicare. Obama did not support Republican Paul Ryan’s Medicare-overhaul plan in the 2012 House GOP budget and instead introduced an alternative that retained the outlines of the current program but added spending limits.
» Opinion/Editorial: Medicare reform: Obama vs. Ryan

Barack Obama on Social Issues

Obama pledged to defend abortion rights and backed a bill to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act, which defines marriage as between a man and a woman. Though he has frequently said he supports civil unions, gay activists have criticized Obama for not going far enough to push for gay marriage rights.
» Article : Obama backs bill to repeal Defense fo Marriage Act
» Article: Obama trying to bridge America’s racial divide

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