AS US President Barack Obama prepares to deliver his sixth State of the Union address next Tuesday evening, he may already be regarded by his adversaries as a lame-duck president whose dwindling power discourages other political players from cooperating and making deals with him. While Mr Obama is expected to serve three more years in office, there is a sense among Washington insiders that his ability to continue pursuing his policy agenda has been considerably curtailed after his performance during the first year of his second term.

Indeed, despite his impressive re-election victory, a determined Republican-controlled House of Representatives continued rejecting all of Mr Obama's major initiatives, ranging from new gun control legislation to immigration reform and new environmental rules, not to mention resistance to a bipartisan deal to put America's fiscal house in order.

At the same time, even the White House's most ardent supporters agree that the Obama administration has botched the rollout of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), aka "Obamacare", which was considered to be Mr Obama's signature legislative achievement. And while Mr Obama has resisted pressure to entangle the United States in new military conflicts, his handling of several crucial foreign policy challenges has been less than effective.