The third reason for Obama’s failure is that most of his ideas were wrong. There were no shovel-ready jobs waiting for the stimulus spending. Fixing health care did not require ripping apart the insurance market. The answer to a weak economy was not expensive green energy.

◼ The Reasons Behind Obama’s Failures - Ted Bromund/Daily Signal

Another reason for Obama’s failure was that he sought, in his words, to begin “the work of remaking America.” The entire American political system was designed by the Founding Fathers to frustrate his plans. The Constitution, with its checks and balances and its separation of powers, was intended to limit the government and prevent transient majorities from having their way.

Within those limits, Obama has actually – and from a conservative perspective, regrettably – done a lot: Obamacare itself is proof of that. But inevitably, having set out to, as he claimed, fundamentally transform the United States, Obama has come up short. He has increasingly resorted to unilateral executive actions precisely because he resents the system’s constraints, but that just feeds the narrative that he’s more emperor than president....

The fiasco of Obamacare was bad enough. But then there was the Veterans Administration scandal, the Secret Service’s prostitute parties, the Internal Revenue Service targeting of conservative groups, Ebola and the Justice Department’s gun-running into Mexico, to name only a few of the screw-ups that have tainted the administration.

Greg Gutfeld's drinking game for the State of the Union

◼ Greg Gutfeld proposes a State of the Union drinking game [video]

Fox's @GregGutfeld proposes a SOTU drinking game: http://t.co/2xjfKDDVho Alternate title: "How To Die of Alcohol Poisoning During The SOTU"

— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) January 27, 2014

'Shovel-ready' bullet train construction delayed again

◼ Serious construction could start in 2014 — when 2012 had been promised. Experts say officials underestimated the challenges of the $68-billion project. - LA TIMES

"It is not as shovel-ready as they thought it was," said Bill Ibbs, a civil engineering professor at UC Berkeley who consults on major construction projects, including high-speed rail, around the world. "The construction industry is starting to heat up, and, as it does, it is harder to get qualified people, and material costs increase."