Against the odds: Despite Washington’s dysfunction, President Obama is scoring notable victories

A year into Barack Obama’s second term as president, one of his quality’s has become apparent. To use a term coined by his predecessor, Mr Obama’s critics severely misunderestimated him. What is wrong with America today, as the recent wrangles about the federal budget and debt levels again demonstrated, is that the person in the White House can only do so much to fix America’s economy, and her still-fractured society, while the political system is so dysfunctional.

As we report today, the Democrats feel confident enough to start thinking about a Hillary Clinton campaign in 2016. A third term for their party would be more remarkable than it sounds; not since the days of FDR have the Democrats won a third consecutive presidential term (though 2000 was obviously a close-run thing).

The reason such a prospect can appear even distantly on the Democrat horizon is the Republicans’ failure to move with the times and reflect America as it is, rather than how they would wish it to be. As has been well-chronicled, the influence of the fundamentalists, the Tea Party Taliban, has left moderate Republicans on the margins at best. Congress was never as bi-partisan and reasonable as is sometimes made out, but the US has never faced the threat of default before and the Republican Party has never been so extreme as it is today. It still manages to alienate Hispanics, and that remains a huge impediment to power. The Republicans are too narrow in their appeal to win the White House, but strong enough to stymie anyone who does. Hence the stasis.

Not that Hispanics necessarily naturally flock to Mr Obama’s progressive brand of politics. But the President has succeeded in a number of important domestic and foreign objectives that make him and his party look like the sort of moderate, competent people that should be entrusted with the fate of what is still the world’s leading economy and military power.

At home, if so-called Obamacare’s worst problem is a poorly functioning website, then that healthcare revolution can be judged a success. Mr Obama has succeeded where his predecessors could only dream and persuaded Americans to accept “socialised medicine”. In its small way it is the most impressive legacy of Aneurin Bevan, this principle that the poorest in society should not have to endure pain for lack of money. At a time when the NHS is still being bashed at home, that is a victory worth noting.

Abroad, Mr Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry have rescued what might have been a disaster in Syria by pragmatically embracing the Russian plan to disable Assad’s stocks of gas. This is yet to be fully achieved, but the early signs are promising. The rapprochement with Iran is a turning point, with the potential to defuse tensions in the Middle East long after the current spying squabbles have been forgotten.

Israel and Saudi Arabia are always going to be tricky allies for the US; Mr Obama’s relations with them are as harmonious as might be expected, given the circumstances. And the President will always be remembered as the man who got bin Laden (now joined in the afterlife by the leader of the Pakistan Taliban).

The major challenge for the remainder of his presidency, though, remains economic. America has not completed – indeed, barely begun – the process of rebalancing that will help it reduce the twin deficits, budget and trade, that threaten its future. They are interlinked, of course, and not amenable to resolution while the Republicans in Congress remain so truculent. It is a huge task, but Mr Obama’s opponents should not misunderestimate his political skills.