Obama Has Opportunities, Challenges in Second Term

January 17, 2013

President Barack Obama has opportunities and major challenges going into his his second term both at home and abroad.

Creating jobs and bolstering the economy will still be the president's top domestic goals in his second term. But he is unlikely to get cooperation from opposition Republicans

On one major issue, raising the national debt limit, Obama is standing firm.

"We can arrive at a package that gets this thing done. I am happy to have that conversation but what I will not do is have that negotiation with a gun at the head of the American people," he said.

Sparked by last month's massacre of 26 children and teachers in a Connecticut school, Obama's second term agenda includes gun control legislation.

Already, the National Rifle Association is attacking the president for proposing new gun controls.

Obama is also determined to achieve immigration reform, an unfinished first term goal. It will require coalition building on Capitol Hill.

"We need to seize the moment, and my expectation is that we get a bill introduced, and we begin the process in Congress very soon after my inauguration," he said.

John Hudak at the Brookings Institution predicts Obama will seek results any way he can.

"I think what the president wants most is for a Democrat to succeed him, and the best way for a Democrat to win the White House in 2016 is for him to be essentially a beacon of policy, to get things done," he said.