Obama's First Year
Tuesday 26 January 2010 16:00 GMT / 11:00 EST
President Barack Obama took office on January 20, 2009 in a context of a grave financial crisis, with an ambitious legislative and foreign policy agenda, and surrounded by unrealistically high expectations. A year on, with economic recovery still modest and unemployment still high, those expectations have given way to some degree of disillusion, despite improving economic conditions and progress on some issues such as healthcare reform. Lack of legislative consensus on major domestic policy issues, continuing concerns over security shortcomings and the prospect of significant Republican gains in the mid-term elections this November have slowed momentum, while hopes of improved foreign relations in a post-Bush environment have begun to dwindle in some areas, including Russia, the Middle East and Latin America. But how realistic are these declining perceptions?
This conference call will look at the overall balance of Obama’s first year in office and prospects for 2010, including the following questions:
- What form will the healthcare reform legislation likely to be adopted this year take, and what effect might this have on the healthcare and pharmaceutical industries?
- What are the prospects for significant energy reform in the context of an election year, ongoing high unemployment and public intolerance for price increases?
- Are other major pieces of domestic policy legislation (e.g. immigration or financial services reform) likely to advance, and at what political cost?
- What is the likelihood of a second stimulus package?
- Where are the main weaknesses in foreign and security policy, and what are the prospects for improvement?
- How serious is the loss of Democratic support in the mid-term elections likely to be in practice? Would it make bipartisan compromise easier to achieve in the Senate?
