Politics
Obama second term bogged down with politics, local issues and external conflicts
“Sadly, all too often, we’re not getting much cooperation from the other side,” Obama complained at a Democratic Party event in Miami in June.
“They seem more interested in winning the next election than helping the next generation.”
Bruce Buchanan, a specialist on the presidency at the University of Texas, says Obama’s struggle with his foes is unique in modern times.
“I don’t think any other president has had quite this difficult situation in terms of the other party’s visceral hatred of him,” he said. The struggle is rooted in a sincerely felt ideological clash between conservatives who view government as the problem and Obama’s reflex to wield state power to meet his era’s challenges.
Currently, the Republican-led House of Representatives is holding hostage Obama’s best bet for a significant second-term domestic achievement — immigration reform.
Many House Republicans fear challenges from their right in 2014 primary contests if they pass a bill to give 11 million illegal immigrants a path to citizenship.
But hopes the logjam may break are validated by fears of national Republican leaders that continuing to infuriate Hispanic voters, for whom immigration reform is a key issue, could lead to years in the political wilderness.
