As a man on a mission with no time to lose, can he avoid the usual traps of twice-elected presidents?
Ordinarily, the second term of an eight-year presidency tends to be frustrating and disappointing for the president and his allies. The problem faced by two-term presidents over the last 75 years – Dwight Eisenhower, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama – is that once re-elected, they immediately become lame ducks. With their agenda mostly complete and their power diminished, speculation about their successor begins to take center stage. By the time of their second inauguration, presidential administrations tend to be running on empty, exhausted by the battles in the heady early days of their newfound power, when the possibilities of major achievements seemed well within their grasp.
