State of the Union: Obama's promises kept, broken

Looking for ways to lift America out of a downward economic spiral, President Barack Obama made a lot of promises in his State of the Union addresses ... and he even kept many of them.

Obama was more successful in pushing his policy goals through Congress in the first half of his first term, when both chambers were in Democratic control. By the time he gave his first address before Congress in 2009, he had already secured the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and put in place a program to assist homeowners facing foreclosure. By midterm, he wrestled lawmakers into approving two other landmark pieces of legislation that dominated his early addresses: health care and Wall Street reform.

After that, his track record became more checkered as the Republicans in the House blocked many of his efforts. He also failed to make much headway into some of the biggest problems facing the nation, such as entitlement reform.

Here's a look at how Obama did on some of the biggest promises of his first term:

Jobs: Job creation was a central theme running through all four of Obama's addresses to Congress. Boosting employment was at the root of many of his proposals, spanning fields such as energy, education, exports and infrastructure.

The 2009 stimulus bill sent money flowing to the clean energy and infrastructure industries, prompting hiring in those areas. It also provided a financial safety net to the states, keeping teachers, firefighters and other government workers on the job. Obama pushed for partnerships with the manufacturing industry and community colleges to prepare the next generation of American workers.

While the administration succeeded in getting a few smaller jobs bills through Congress after the Recovery Act, Obama did not get comprehensive employment legislation in the later years of his first term. And while he's placed a lot of emphasis on the revival of the manufacturing sector -- calling it in last year's speech "a blueprint for an economy that's built to last" -- the industry has lost 606,000 jobs since his first inauguration.

Still, there's no question that jobs were created on Obama's watch. The nation added 1.2 million jobs since he took office. That's even more impressive when you consider the big hole he had to dig out of: The nation started shedding positions in early 2008 and continued for more than a year into Obama's term. Employers have added 5.5 million jobs since the nadir in February 2010.

However, the economy is not creating jobs fast enough for a strong recovery to take hold. Last month, only 157,000 jobs were added.

Taxes: It took four years, but Obama got what he wanted in terms of eliminating tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans. Sort of.

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