SYDNEY — The euphoria and promise of Barack Obama's election triumph will soon be tempered by the stark prospect of U.S. weakness and decline. The new president has a mountain of work ahead of him if he is to restore the tarnished U.S. brand and repair the financial mess that is likely to be his predecessor's most enduring legacy.
President George W. Bush's stewardship of the U.S. economy has been a disaster. On his watch, Bush has turned a 2000 Clinton surplus of $128 billion into a $1 trillion-plus deficit, private debt has skyrocketed, the nation's infrastructure has deteriorated alarmingly and the defense budget is under serious strain.
These economic realities present Obama with two major challenges as he contemplates his domestic and foreign policy agenda. First, is the Herculean task of repairing a dysfunctional financial system and dealing with the consequences of what may be the worst recession since the 1930s.