President Obama's Second Term Challenges

Unfortunately, Republicans are chasing windmills to undermine the launch of the Affordable Care Act aka "Obamacare".  Instead, they should be focused entirely on how to protect our national economy from more uncertainty and preventable "shutdown" turmoil.  

News anchors and pundits are quick to make news out of President Obama's second term challenges; but they're presenting only one side of the president's legacy.

Americans must remember what a mess President Obama inherited when he took office. Our news media has an obligation to remind Americans about how far we've come, in spite of Republican obstructionism on virtually every progressive issue.

Although these numbers don't tell the whole story of the first four-year term in office, they serve as snapshots and provide on-the-fly insight into the priorities, problems, policies and pastimes of Obama's first term presidency.

Economic indicators

National unemployment rate - Jan. 2009: 7.8 percent; Jan. 2013 (Dec. 12, 2012): 7.8 percent (Hit high of 10 percent in Oct. 2009, then slow decline over 35 months back to 7.8 percent)

National debt - Jan. 2009: $10.616 trillion; Jan. 2013: $16.432 trillion (At $5.8 trillion, it's the largest increase in the national debt under one president. Mr. Obama says $1.3 trillion was waiting for him on the day he took office. The debt equals 104 percent of GDP)

Gross Domestic Product - Jan. 2009: $13,939 trillion; Jan. 2013 (Q3 2012): $15,811 trillion (current dollar) (Quarter-to-quarter economic growth went negative in 2009 but returned to the positive side by the end of the year and then recorded lackluster quarterly hikes between 2 percent and 3 percent)

Dow Jones Industrial Average - Jan. 2009: 8,077; Jan. 2013 (1/18/2013): 13,616 (It's a 58 percent increase on Mr. Obama's watch)

In comparisom, the problems with the Obamacare website launch aren't having a significant impact on our national economy. On the other hand, Republicans who forced a government shutdown becasuse they just don't happen to like the Affordable Care Act, have created more problems than the launch glitches. 

Republicans, as usual, are wasting time by feeding news starved pundits with negativity about Obamacare. Rather than create anxiety about Obamacare, Republicans should, instead, be focused like a laser beam on how to avoid any more preventable economic anxiety.

President Obama's second term legacy may well be his steadfast leadership in the face of Republican seditious attempts to bring down the entire US government, for no rational reason. 

Many non-democratic countries would hang seditious leaders like Senator Ted Cruz, Senator Marco Rubio and right wing Congressional members like Michele Bachmann. Thankfully, President Obama's executive leadership allowed him to stand firm against right wing extremism. Nevertheless, these same right wing anarchists are waiting in the wings to repeat the chaos they created in October 2013, right after the beginning of the New Year. 

President Obama's second term challenges won't be defined by the launch of the Affordable Care Act, ie Obamacare. Instead, Obama's challenge is to protect America from a government takeover by right wing extremists. These neoconservatives, and their lock step followers, are intent on creating a minority government led by narrow minded and bigoted people who don't believe in the democracy our founding fathers envisioned.

It's the responsibility of the American main stream media to provide a balanced report on how to evaluate President Obama's presidency. A negative focus on the Obamacare launch is a useless diversion to take attention away from the unresolved drama impending with another anarchy attempt by right wing extremists. 

Preventing extremism from succeeding is President Obama's second term challenge.