A Good End to Obama’s “Annus Horribilis”

Perhaps it can seem exaggerated to describe 2010 as an “annus horribilis” for Obama, but with the exception of the past week, the last 12 months have been a nightmare for a president that progressively lost the “glamour” and admiration that came off in his first months of presidency.

From his more tender beginning, the year 2010 began fatally for Obama. On Jan. 19, the Democrats unexpectedly lost Ted Kennedy’s seat in Massachusetts, which added a new setback to achieving health care reform.

Without a doubt, the approval of the historic law in March was Obama’s best moment of 2010. Nevertheless, it has hardly provided political yield; public opinion remains as divided on this matter as in the beginning of the year.

Neither the economy, incapable of lowering unemployment near 10 percent, nor foreign policy with the conflict in Palestine and the situation in Afghanistan, offered the White House some cause for celebration during the year that is ending.

Events conspired that allowed the Republicans to severely beat Obama and his Democratic Party in November’s midterm elections, with a magnitude that had not been seen in more than seven decades.

Curiously, when Obama seemed to lose more and when more people questioned his leadership from all fronts, the president achieved different successful legislative acts that could serve as a foundation for his political resurrection.

The Congress approval of the “fiscal pact” that he supported, alongside the repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell” and the START ratification, his last success to date in foreign policy, constituted an excellent end to a horrific year. The president needs to reinvent himself, and his action in these last weeks could be a draft of a new Obama, capable of reconciling with those that withdrew their support from him during 2010. Although the campaign will not truly begin until 2012, the next 12 months can be decisive for Obama’s reelection, since his successes and failures will construct the narrative that will dominate the presidential campaign.

Furthermore, his popularity and his electoral prospects halfway through 2011 will depend also on whether some of his more dangerous possible Republican rivals decide to embark on obtaining the White House or opt to wait for a more favorable situation in 2016.