A Year of Mixed Results for Obama

Video: Obama Year in Review

His year started with soaring optimism and the promise of change. It is ending with some significant achievements but also a large helping of disappointment. And through it all, President Obama has governed in a somewhat paradoxical way that many voters didn't expect when they elected him—as an advocate of a vast expansion of activist government and as a commander in chief whose escalation of the Afghanistan war pleasantly surprised many conservatives.

"The biggest criticism against him is the ambitiousness of the way he has proceeded," says Ross Baker, a Rutgers political scientist. Baker argues that this criticism is in some ways unfair because so many big issues have required the president's attention all at once, such as the economy's near collapse, unemployment, the troubled healthcare system, international terrorism, and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. "You don't have the option of taking these in order, of taking a number like in a delicatessen," Baker says.

The Republicans aren't nearly as positive or forgiving. Ken Duberstein, former White House chief of staff for President Ronald Reagan, says that this "has been a nasty year. It began with high hopes and new dreams and ends with dark clouds." Adds Republican pollster Bill McInturff: "He's retained the personal affection of the country, and the country wants him to succeed and do well. But he has opened up considerable doubts about his policies and programs and the efficacy of his ideas. And he's ruptured the debate about the role of government and spending in ways that redound to the benefit of Republicans."

McInturff also says, "Today, compared to a year ago, President Obama looks a lot less like a significant transitional figure in a new American politics and a lot more like a traditional Democratic liberal trying to govern a center-right country."

For their part, Obama, the nation's first African-American president, and his advisers say he was dealt a very bad hand upon taking office but handled multiple crises with intelligence, pragmatism, and composure. At a minimum, they argue, the economy would be much worse if he had not acted so boldly with a massive stimulus package and bailouts of key financial institutions and automakers. And they say he is charting a sensible path in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

Acknowledging that most Americans are concerned above all with the economy and unemployment, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs observes, "We made some tough decisions to stabilize the financial system and pass the recovery plan, and I think the trend is in the right direction. I think people are going to look at what we've done and in the long run will understand that what we did was the right thing to do." Gibbs points out that America's financial institutions are doing better, Wall Street is on an upward path, and the unemployment rate declined from 10.2 percent to 10 percent from October to November.

Gibbs says there hasn't been much time for "introspection" on what the past year has meant to the country or how it fits into larger historical trends. "I'm not sure December feels entirely different from April," he says. "A little cooler, fewer leaves, but that's about it." More broadly, Democratic pollster Stan Greenberg, a former adviser to President Bill Clinton, says, "People want a strong leader who can get his people together and get things done. People need to see success, and the biggest success would be to pass healthcare." That's Obama's top priority, and it's still under consideration on Capitol Hill.

But GOP pollster Kellyanne Conway says Obama's unpopular big-spending policies and his failure to deliver positive results in reducing unemployment and other issues have contributed to the buildup of an anti-incumbent mood across the country. This could sweep many officeholders from power next November, which would be particularly bad news for Democrats, who hold most of the seats in the House and Senate. "People are impatient with the pace of change," Conway says. "People have heard this song and dance before." And a prominent Democratic strategist says: "People are worried that President Obama has good intentions but can't quite get it done in Washington. They believe most presidents have good intentions but they get eaten up by Washington." That's why winning passage for healthcare is so important.