BARACK OBAMA AT HALFWAY (3)

As Barack Obama was inaugurated today for his second, and final, term of office, it is hard not to feel somewhat apprehensive about what that term might bring. Back in November, when he was re-elected, averting the fiscal cliff was the absolute priority. Yet although disaster was averted (just), the President's role in the negotiations with Congress was not impressive. Given that a new, and hopefully longer-term, deal needs to be struck within the next few months, that does not bode well, particularly since Mr. Obama also intends to change his Treasury Secretary at the same time. Cabinet appointments have to be approved by the Senate, thereby giving a fractious Congress yet another opportunity to make mischief.

Putting America's finances onto some sort of proper footing must be the absolute number one domestic priority; kicking the can further down the road, as the Americans would say and have been doing for the past decade, is not an option. Yet the President has always seemed rather uninterested in economic policy. It is true that American Presidents, like Governments most places, have less leverage over the economy than they like to make out. Nevertheless, an economic agent that owes roughly US$16 trillion remains a pretty big agent, and it is important for everyone else that - at the least - that agent knows what it is doing. That has not always been apparent during Mr. Obama's first term.

Abroad, there remain serious problems. The U.S. is out of Iraq, but the latter doesn't seem to be functioning very well. Afghanistan is a mess, whatever the politicians say, and Pakistan is fast getting there, as is Syria. Iran and Russia remain prickly. Mr. Obama has yet to meet China's new leadership, and has yet to visit Israel. Other, low-level, conflicts are bubbling away in Africa.

In short, there is a lot to be done. The problem is that in Mr. Obama's first term, he combined lofty rhetoric with a disturbing coolness that suggested more of a desire to get re-elected than to make an impact. Because of the U.S. electoral system, all Presidents do this to some extent. But Mr. Obama seemed to do it more; which means in turn that he has more to do.

Walter Blotscher