Globe & Mail, Canada [Click Here for More Cartoons] Second Term Trials will Reveal Mettle of 'Enigmatic' Obama (La Stampa, Italy) "The dossier on Obama's table pertains to the U.S. fiscal crisis, relations with China, the control of weapons of war on the U.S. market, and immigration reform. ... An American fiscal collapse and a strategic conflict with China would be more than enough fill the second term of any president. Yet Obama also has to deal with the old Middle East; the new face of the Muslim world after the Arab Spring; Iranian extortion over its nuclear program; a Putin weakened by a drop in oil prices but determined to hold on to power; and the need to revitalize relations with Europe." By Gianni Riotta Translated By Katharine Townsend January 26, 2013 Italy - La Stampa - Original Article (Italian) President Barack Obama delivers his second inaugural address, Jan, 21. Does he have the time and wearwithal to become THE BBC VIDEO: Obama is being urged to focus on Asia partners, Oct 21, 00:02:29 American students who mingled with a crowd of half a million to celebrate Barack Obama's first swearing in four years ago went to work yesterday - at least, those who are fortunate enough to have jobs. Others are out looking for work, as they are every Monday. The abrupt shift from utopia to reality is a good way to summarize Obama's second term. In 2009, the president led an America that had just fallen into the worst financial crisis since 1929, and which faced the two wars that followed September 11, 2001 - in Afghanistan and Iraq. His administration had to suture the wounds of the past and stimulate the economy with dollars and public spending, while coordinating a strategic withdrawal from Kabul and Bagdad. The freefall into the abyss of economic crisis was halted, but the two unfortunate military campaigns headed toward withdrawal ceremonies without victory: the first global war against Islamic fundamentalist terrorism has moved to the deserts of Mali, and is now led by the former pacifists in Paris. Today, the dossier on Obama's table pertains to the American fiscal crisis, relations with China, the control of weapons of war on the U.S. market, and immigration reform, which, the president hopes, will be on a par with the controversial health reform of his first term. Of all the choices that await Obama II and the judgment of history, a return to fiscal balance in Washington is the most important. The president has failed in any way to open a dialogue between the parties, and U.S. policy has become so gangrenous that former Republican Senator Chuck Hagel, whom Obama has nominated for secretary of defense, has met with ferocious opposition from his former colleagues. They consider Hagel a traitor toward Israel. Without an agreement, the $16 trillion debt will wreak havoc on American society, politics, and its economy, triggering a deterioration in U.S. influence around the world. It can't go on like this - and Obama knows it - but he has done nothing about it, tearing up proposals from a bipartisan commission convened to address the issue [the Simpson-Bowles Commission]. America cannot continue to spend as if taxes were high - and tax as if spending was low. High spending and low taxes, as George W. Bush so catastrophically demonstrated, leads to ruin. With a record number of Americans - baby boomers - entering retirement, the three items of expenditure that must be cut are defense, health, and social security. The most intelligent economists, like Kenneth Rogoff, propose to cut spending through innovation, that is, by reforming the military, hospitals, subsidies for the elderly, and hi-tech schools, in order to provide services at reduced cost. But no one has the courage to suggest this to voters. YOUR DONATION MAKES OUR WORK AS A NON-PROFIT POSSIBLE. THANK YOU.

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His second main agenda item concerns China. Prepared to overtake the United States economically sometime between 2017 and 2018, China fears a demographic crisis - too few births and too few girls - which would weaken the country beginning in 2030. That leaves ten crucial years for hegemony over the Pacific, and for this reason, Beijing is launching a naval fleet and its first aircraft carrier, and is quarrelling with Japan over the Senkaku Islands [aka/the Diaoyu Islands]. China's new leader, Xi Jinping, must choose whether to hold a dialogue with Obama, slip into a cold war, or launch a military conflict. Vietnam, India, the Philippines, Malaysia, Burma and Australia, are asking for U.S. protection against a Chinese offensive. And Japan, under its new Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, wants to annul Tokyo's anti-militarist constitution - paradoxically drafted by the American General MacArthur - increase defense spending, and rewrite history textbooks to portray the Rising Sun as the victim rather than the aggressor in World War II.

An American fiscal collapse and a strategic conflict with China would be more than enough fill the second term of any president. Yet Obama also has to deal with the old Middle East, where there is no sign of progress between Israel and the Palestinians; the new face of the Muslim world after the Arab Spring; Iranian extortion over its nuclear program; a Putin weakened by a drop in oil prices but determined to hold on to power; and the need to revitalize relations with Europe, which has been so preoccupied with the euro crisis that for years it hasn't been an attractive partner for Washington.

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To this already turbulent agenda, in the aftermath of a massacre at a school in Newtown, Obama wants to add a ban on automatic weapons. In a live broadcast before the nation he was moved to tears, and felt obligated to act.

SEE ALSO ON THIS:

De Volkskrant, The Netherlands: Betting on Obama to Quickly Show His Greatness

Le Figaro, France: Obama Version II Ready to 'Return Blow for Blow!'

Folha, Brazil: Obama's Legacy Depends Most on U.S. Energy Transition

Xinhua, China: Barack Obama: 'Handsome and Young to Hoary and Old'

El Universal, Mexico: Influence-Flush U.S. Latinos Must 'Exploit Unprecedented Moment'

Ottawa Citizen, Canada: Obama Fails to Make Convincing Case for Strong Government

Globe & Mail, Canada: Obama Talks Alternative Energy While Counting on an Oil Boom'

Globe & Mail, Canada: Obama Pragmatist, Meet Obama the Liberal '

Economist, U.K.: Barack Obama is from the Government, and He is Here to Help You

Belfast Telegraph, North Ireland : Obama's Toughest Battle is Upon Him

NZZ Switzerland: Obama II: Prepare for America's New Danger- Averse Global Course

Finally - as part of a debt of gratitude toward ethnic voters, Hispanics and Asians, who sent him back to the White House by choosing him over Republican Romney - Obama is working on immigration reform, with amnesty for illegal immigrants (numbering around 15 million) who have been living in the U.S. for years, and a reopening of the issue of visa applications and permits for students and qualified technicians. And for day laborers, today often intimidated, he could provide pathways to agricultural employment, and then provide access to citizenship. The two Republican politicians that dream of the White House, Marco Rubio and Paul Ryan, have seen how the desertion of Hispanic voters defeated Mitt Romney, and have calculated that the rise of ethnic voters is the key to winning the White House in 2016 and 2020. So they are prepared to collaborate so that all the credit for immigration reform isn't handed to the Democrats.

The record shows that these will be the obstacles in President Barack Hussein Obama's second term. What emergencies, tragedies, and opportunities history will direct his way, as it always does, no one knows. And as always, it will be precisely his reaction to these movements of history that will reveal to us what sort of president the enigmatic Obama really is.

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Posted By Worldmeets.US Jan. 26, 2013 , 12:22am