●奥巴马，年终奖难拿！!！!(怀念三毛)Obama_自考专本|专升本|高升专|高升本|在职研究生-学历教育网

乱世英雄---奥巴马，年终奖难拿！!(怀念三毛) Obama's first year A Mixed Record in a Crisis-Filled Year

By MICHAEL SCHERER / WASHINGTON Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2010本科

A year in the White House can make even life on the campaign trail look sluggish. Since he took the oath of office one year ago, Barack Obama has faced a near constant stream of crises, with mixed results. The Dow Jones Industrial Average has gone up 33%, but the unemployment rate — now at 10% — has risen at the same pace. The credit panic has mostly abated, but monthly home foreclosures continue to grow. He sent more troops to Afghanistan, while planning to draw down troops form Iraq. Americans still praise the President as a "strong leader" who is "honest and trustworthy," but about half of the country also thinks he has been irresponsible with federal spending and not focused on their top priorities — jobs and the economy.

By far the biggest issue now facing President Obama after a year in office is that his time for doing stuff may already be running out. The surprisingly narrow contest in Massachusetts Tuesday seemed to nail home the point: America still wants change and Obama is not the only vehicle. On his first year anniversary, as Obama's aides recalibrate for the years to come, here is a look at what the President has been able to accomplish, and what he still hopes to get done.

This is the big one, the ambitious initiative on which President Obama bet his first term. And he almost got it done in the first year, getting two similar bills passed along party-line votes in the House and the Senate. But he had not yet passed the finish line, and the cost in political capital has been substantial. An early January poll by NBC News and the Wall Street Journal found that just 38% of the country approved of how Obama had handled health care reform, compared to 55% who disapproved. Now, with the loss of Ted Kennedy's seat in Massachusetts to Republican Scott Brown, Obama must go back to the drawing board, reworking a coalition that could continue to erode as the 2010 election approaches.

Even if he does manage to sign a bill later this year, it remains unclear just how well the compromise Obama has fashioned will fulfill his own goals. Deficit hawks have complained that the current proposals do little to bend the long term cost curve. Liberals have worried that the health insurance mandate will cause a financial burden on middle-income citizens who don't qualify for government subsidies. And several business groups have complained that new taxes on the insurance, drug and medical device makers will lead to increased costs for insurers.

For months, White House advisers have been echoing versions of the same refrain: "Frankly, jobs have to be the top priority," said economic adviser Larry Summers in mid-December. This is true both as a policy matter — without job growth, economic recovery will stagnate — and in terms of politics. A poll late last year by Greenberg Quinlin, a Democratic firm, found that jobs were far and away the biggest economic concern, far outstripping worries about health care and budget deficits.

So how has Obama done so far? By pushing through a major economic stimulus in February, he successfully helped avert a total catastrophe, lessening the job loss, say economists. But the economy still has a long way to go, and more stimulus, which Obama has already proposed, will likely be needed in the coming months. "Layoffs have abated from the financial panic of a year ago," explains Moody's economist Mark Zandi, who advises both parties. "But the number of forced separations remains uncomfortably high. Even worse, hiring and job creation remain dormant."

Public anxiety is reflected in hard numbers. The Bureau of Labor Statistics lists 11.9 million unemployed in January 2009, when Obama took office, compared with 15.3 million in December. Obama is not responsible for the economic contraction that led to these job losses, but he has not yet found a way to solve the problem.

Financial Reform

Richard H.Cohen / Corbis

Upon taking office, Obama promised not just to avert financial collapse, but to reform the financial system so that such a catastrophe would not be repeated. But as recently as Thanksgiving, Obama made it clear that his work in this regard was far from complete. "We cannot rest," he said, "until we have moved beyond the cycles of boom and bust – of reckless risk and speculation – that led us to so much crisis and pain these past few years."

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