Barack Obama goes for broke - President’s legacy is still in the making at the start of his second term

We have a teaparty equivelant in OZ they have about 10% of the vote which may give them senate representation at this years fed. election and as in the U.S. they are courted by the conservative opposition using the same old ethnicity and immigrant fear campaign.

Thanks. I bet I'd like Australia if I ever get to visit. They really make some of my favorite movies, including 'Man From Snowy River' and 'Romero'. I'd also love to attend a concert at the Sydney Opera House. But Canada's a lot closer and easier for me to reach, should the need arise. If things ever get SO bad in the U.S. that I want or need to leave, however, I'd best hang around and help the Resistance fight the teabaggers, who will probably always infest the woodwork to some degree. I never saw such a bunch of lunatic sociopaths as the ultra right. They're fascists, plain and simple.

If the teaprty ever runs America come to Autralia wher you will have a great health service,good wages (min.safety net $16 per hour and no guns on the street.

Sean, I've often wondered if the teabaggers suffer some form of Stockholm Syndrome in regard to the oligarchy. America (and probably the rest of the world) is NOT broke; rather, too much wealth has accumulated in the hands of too few. We great unwashed throughout history have invariably risen up and overthrown our masters. My personal hope is that someday we won't wind up handing the store right back to them.

The teabaggers wish to make the rich richer and they can only accomplish this by making themselves poorer, for every gain someone has to loose.

katieherk, you're welcome to believe all the rubbish you want. What you don't have the right to do is spout lies which (only) the mentally and morally bereft will swallow. But it clouds the public airspace and really, exposes you to contempt from anyone with two brain cells to rub together. Where did you pick up that 3rd-4th term nonsense? The crazies on Faux TV? U.S. presidents are now LIMITED to 2 terms by law, and if you think that will ever be overthrown, you're truly living in fantasyland. Not even the most ardent hard-left socialists such as I would even contemplate such insanity. But I guess you and your little troll friends revel in trying to set off little fires everywhere you can, desperately hoping that you can make yourselves noticed and important to society. Those of us from center to westward are only here to enjoy your bleating and give you a well deserved hard knock between the eyes on occasion. Nobody but an idiot takes any of you seriously. That's the general educated opinion of what causes the worst of your bunch's malaise: the undeniable fact that the mass of humanity finds your beliefs and behavior abhorrent. Why should we respect you at all - I damn sure DON'T - when you've shoveled nothing but manure into public discourse? Endlessly recycled manure at that!

McNamara31..You are right. Obama inherited a disaster and the stimulus package was helpful, although I think more shovel ready, public works projects would have been more beneficial than projects like cleaning up the Washington Mall and insulating federal buildings. The question I have been asking myself for the past four years is ... What next? The problem is their is no "next." He keeps repeating the same mantra: more money for clean energy (despite persistent obvious failures of private companies), more money for college degrees that provide dubious skills and no jobs in the end and more money for k-12 without any mention of reform (e.g. outdated tenure policies, no option for vouchers and tax credits). I am not making this stuff up. Read his last four SOU speeches and two inaugurals. They all say the same thing. Obama's economic plan: clean energy and education. Let us stop blaming GWB for all of America's problems and start accepting that the man in the White House has no clue how to turn around a stagnant economy. FDR and Ronald Reagan managed to do it. Carter failed and so far so has Obama.

michaelidaho.. You just can't ignore that before Obama stepped into the oval office, this country was bleeding over 700,000 jobs a month under republican economics, along with 2 unpaid wars on the backs of the American worker. Further, the Bush Era deregulated banking policies allowed the financial sector to leverage their debt from 12 to 1 up to over 40 to 1 which created the too big to fail scenario which enabled the crash. There was "No Choice" in the stimulus money that followed, no matter who had been elected president ...it was a necessity to avoid and even greater depression. When you travel to other countries, you soon realize that our own is in desperate need of infrastructure upgrades, especially since hurricane Sandy. The obstructionist conservatives are only harming this country further with their plans to block Obama at every turn. And you very well know the only thing truly holding back major strides in green technologies are the coal ,oil, and fracking lobbyists that own today's GOP.

EphraimAbbey, The Democrats controlled Congress for two years in Obama's first term. The massive stimulus package passed was a temporary measure with mixed results that did not have any long term benefit on the U.S. economy. McNamara31, some of the public works you advocate are practical and commonsense. The only problem is that Obama's economic plan has mostly focused on throwing money at green energy and education without promoting any policies for long term growth in the private sector. Seanomelb, Enron could have happened under a Democratic or Republican administration and had absolutely nothing to do with policies advocated by Republicans. The blame for the Enron fiasco lies with the fraudulent, corrupt and greedy ownnership of private individuals. In contrast, Solyndra and countless other green energy failures were subsidized and promoted by the Obama administration.

Actually it's the working taxpayers who are going to be broke!

Michaelidaho castigates the solyndra bankruptcy I wonder what he has to say about the 'Enron" crash which took billions of dollars from retirees pension fund and forced some back into the workforce. The cahairman and the board were personal friends of Bush. Obama will prevail and he will make the U.S. a fairer society and as eiriamach states history will trat him well.

Today the jobs report is the best it has been in five years. Obama's on track, and I predict that historians will assess his presidency as a great and needed turnaround for America, the beginning of a return to national prosperity with economic justice as well as social justice. ~~~~~ As for the editors who produced this piece and wrote, "President Reagan made it a point of attacking government by saying the era of big government was over," I believe it was Bill Clinton who said in the mid-90s that the era of big government was over. It was a Reaganesque moment for him when he said it.

his Legacy is BENGHAZI, burned forever onto his forehead!

Searlit, EphraimKibbey... Wishing you and yours blessings in the New Year. @michaelidaho: the jobs created through green energy, smart homes and cities, new security safe power grids and infrastructure upgrades to our roads, trains, airports, sewerage plants along with upgrades to our aging nuclear facilities has the potential to employ millions with ripple effects into supplier industries.

McNamara31 - Well said! michaelidaho - Its hard to create jobs when the congress refuses to inact any of your remedies! And, Oh yea, what happened to the "government can't create jobs" rant I kept hearing? How can you blame him for not doing something the GOP says he CAN'T do? You need to decide if you are Randian or Keynesian and stick to one way of thinking. You just don't like him so everything he does or doesn't do is grist for your Anti-Obama mill. We get it! America is beginning to understand the GOP and they do not like the Ugly, Anti-American Ideals picture that they see.