Weighing the First Year of Obama as President
He angered conservatives, yet some liberals saw him as too willing to compromise. Many Americans think his push on health care takes his attention from the economy. Transcript of radio broadcast:
22 January 2010
This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English.
President Barack Obama has begun his second year in office. The forty-fourth president, and first African-American president, was inaugurated last January twentieth.
BARACK OBAMA: "Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real, they are serious and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this America, they will be met."
President Obama answers a question in Elyria, Ohio, FridayThose challenges included an economic downturn, wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and a promise to reform the health care system.
Congress quickly approved an economic recovery bill. Yet unemployment remains high at ten percent. The Obama administration now faces the earthquake relief effort in Haiti and the threat of terrorism at home. There was a failed attempt to bomb a plane on its way to Detroit, Michigan, on Christmas Day.
BARACK OBAMA: "As president, I have a solemn responsibility to protect our nation and our people. And when the system fails, it is my responsibility."
President Obama campaigned on a promise of "change we can believe in." His high public approval ratings have fallen in recent months. A poll by Quinnipiac University in Connecticut found Americans equally divided about his first year. Peter Brown works at the university.
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