OVERVIEW
Barack Hussein Obama was sworn in[->0] as the 44th president of the United States on Jan. 20, 2009. The son of a black man from Kenya and a white woman from Kansas, he is the first African-American to ascend to the highest office in the land.
He defeated Hillary Rodham Clinton in a lengthy and bitter primary battle before defeating Senator John McCain, the Arizona Republican, in November 2008.
As president, Mr. Obama has won passage of a number of sweeping pieces of legislation, notably a health care bill that will eventually provide near-universal coverage, a goal that had eluded Democratic presidents for 75 years. Other big victories included the $787 billion stimulus bill, passed in February 2009, meant to shore up a cratering economy, and a financial regulatory reform measure, passed in July 2010, meant to reduce the odds of another Wall Street meltdown.
But Mr. Obama has been stymied on measures like immigration reform and a cap and trade system to reduce carbon emissions by the steadfast opposition of Congressional Republicans, who were joined on some key votes by conservative Democrats. His popularity fell steadily — from 70 percent to under 50 percent — as unemployment stayed stubbornly high. By official accounts, the recession ended, but the recovery was too tepid to knock more than a few fractions off the jobless rate. The White House admitted that it had underestimated the extent of the recession, the worst since the Great Depression of the 1930s.
With voters angry about the economy and frustrated with Washington, the Tea Party Movement rose to prominence pushing a radically anti-government agenda, while on the left, pride in accomplishments like the health care bill was diluted by a belief that Mr. Obama was too quick to compromise, too concerned with the well-being of the banks and too reluctant to fight.
On Nov. 2, 2010, Republicans