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Barack Obama: the first year

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Obama hammers Wall Street banks

The global banking industry was thrown into turmoil after President Barack Obama moved to channel public rage over the financial crisis into the most far-reaching overhaul of Wall Street since the 1930s

Pelosi admits setback in US health reform

The Obama administration’s prospects for passing healthcare reform legislation grew significantly bleaker when Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the House of Representatives, said she could not muster the votes needed to pass the Senate plan through the lower chamber

Analysis: Dilemma for the president

Most political junkies were pointing at a clear choice for Barack Obama: will he follow Franklin Roosevelt or Bill Clinton?

‘Forces of populism’ set to rise

US foreign policy, trade and climate change measures will be hit if focus turns inward following the electoral cataclysm in Massachusetts

Democrats’ loss complicates healthcare reform

After defeat in Massachusetts, the question now is how Barack Obama will interpret a defeat that robs him of a controlling super-majority in the Senate 10 months ahead of the congressional mid-term elections

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Obama’s first year in office

Timeline: Revisit the key decisions and defining moments from President Obama’s historic first year in the White House

Obama’s first 100 days

Interactive feature: Obama’s first 100 days as they unfolded

Obama's first year

Comment & analysis

US healthcare reform falls ill

Sadly, it now looks too late for Barack Obama to exercise the leadership that was missing this past year – in guiding the effort, in uniting his own party around a plan, and above all in assuring the public that it all made sense

A declaration of war on Wall Street

On the day Goldman Sachs announced fourth-quarter earnings of $4.95bn, the president set out broad new measures on financial regulation, the most significant of which is a radical shift – and a mistake

Democrats reel at Bay Staters’ verdict

One-party rule from the left is not what US voters want. That is the real message of Massachusetts, and though it may already be too late, Obama had better take note

Why Obama should play to populism

The 44th president is on the mat, but anyone counting him out has not taken his measure, writes Simon Schama. Yet the president may need to respond, not by turning on more consensual charm, but by taking the gloves off

Obama can turn to 1994 for a silver lining

That electoral year was also a debacle for Democrats but it thrust Newt Gingrich to the forefront of national life as Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives. Just as Newt overreached, so may Republicans now, writes Jurek Martin

America: Maybe he can’t

Barack Obama

A year since taking office, Barack Obama is up against the limits of his power – his healthcare breakthrough overshadowed by unemployment at home and difficulties abroad

A test for Obama in Kennedy fief

To lose the seat held by Edward Kennedy for nearly 50 years would stand as a brutal repudiation of Barack Obama’s programme

Unholy alliance at war with Obama’s foreign policy

The president has accepted the advice of intelligence chiefs, military commanders and diplomats, that defeating al-Qaeda ultimately is about hearts, minds and politics as much as military force, writes Philip Stephens

Obama’s bank fee

This plan has more to do with populist sentiment and token deficit reduction than recouping public investment in the banking system

America is losing the free world

The Obama administration is facing an unexpected and unwelcome development in global politics. Four of the biggest and most strategically important democracies in the developing world – Brazil, India, South Africa and Turkey – are increasingly at odds with American foreign policy. The US has been slow to pick up on this development, writes Gideon Rachman

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Bipartisan plan to fix US finances at risk

High hopes fail to hold back jobless tide

US presidents join forces for Haiti aid

Progress made on START treaty

Obama pledges ‘swift, co-ordinated’ action

US bank levy will be tax-deductible

America: Maybe he can’t

White House kept abreast of plans

Bitter words cut short US-Cuba progress

Business group lends limited support to Obama

The politics of the US bank levy plan

Obama to target banks with new levy

Democrats unite in support of Reid over Obama gaffe

Obama outlines steps on terror failures

Obama rebukes security chiefs over ‘failure’

Senators wrangle over financial reform

Obama snowed under by his promises of action

Obama aide hits back over charge of being soft

Obama weighs new Iran sanctions

Obama calls failures ‘unacceptable’