By Uche Onyebadi

THERE is no denying the fact that 2014 was a year few Americans will be in a hurry to forget. It was a year in which the infamous Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) raised brutality to higher pedestals with the decapitation of innocent Americans and people of other nationalities in the name of religion and other banalities the group claims to represent.

Less inhuman but equally bizarre was the action of North Korea in freeing two Americans, Matthew Miller and Kenneth Bae, who were held in very confounding circumstances. It was also a year in which the world got to know the extent to which U.S. interrogators used torture as a preferred instrument to extract what was questionably called “actionable intelligence” from captured members of various international terrorism groups. As the year wound up, President Obama displayed unusual boldness in extending a diplomatic hand of friendship to Cuba, a long-standing enemy nation.

Perhaps, three major incidents had the most profound impact on U.S. internal affairs in 2014. One incident was the killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, by a somewhat trigger-happy policeman. The passions inflamed by that incident were further exacerbated when jurors found no probable cause to send the policeman to trial.

Powerful catalysts for nation wide protests

The same verdict was reached in the case of Eric Garner who died when arresting policemen used the chokehold method banned by their department to subdue him. Reports of such police killings are nothing new in police-public relations in the U.S. but these two incidents were powerful catalysts for nation-wide protests against excessive use of force by policemen in the course of duty. The fact that minorities are often the targets of such police action did not help matters.

The second impactful incident was the mid-term election in November, 2004. Results from the polls reduced the Democrats to playing second fiddle in both Senate and House of Representatives. The new political power equation in the U.S. leaves President Obama vulnerable to all sorts of political maneuvers by the majority Republican lawmakers. For the past two years, Republicans have been licking the wounds inflicted upon them when Democrats passed the healthcare bill into law. With their new majority in Congress, Republicans are poised to chip away as many sections of the law as they can. On the other hand, the White House has already made it clear that the president will not sign any legislation that will decimate his signature achievement.

The third area is the U.S. economy. According to the New York Times, the nation’s economic growth rate for the third quarter of 2014 was 3.9 percent. When the Bureau of Labour Statistics released the unemployment figure for November, 2014 and it held at 5.8 percent, very few people were surprised, given the rate at which the economy was growing. Today, the price of gas remains around $2 per gallon, about half of what it cost barely a year ago. My point is that these economic giant steps are not celebrated either in the media or by the Obama White House. The impression still being created by the opposition and conservative media is that the president is not doing enough to resuscitate the U.S. economy. But the contrary is the case.

The U.S. economy is enjoying what has eluded it in the past six or more years. The Gallup polls between December 29, 2014 and January 2, 2015, shows that Obama has a job approval rating of 48 percent, far more than what he had a few months ago. Yet, there is hardly any nation-wide visible ovation about how the president is doing his job. Unlike 2014, this year promises to be a year of politics. Aside from the looming battle between President Obama and Democrats on one side and Republican Congressmen and women on the other, the race for the 2016 presidential election will commence sooner than later. No candidate worthy of the race can afford to remain in the closet much longer. Hillary Clinton will have to publicly announce her rather well-known intention to run for the high office which no female has ever occupied since the U.S. became independent.

The Republicans are still undecided as to who will be their front-runners. But, it is a group that will include Jeb Bush, former governor of Florida and younger brother of former President George Bush. Others in the line-up are Bobby Jindal, governor of Louisiana, Senators Marco Rubio (Florida) and Rand Paul (Kentucky), Rick Perry, governor of Texas and Mike Huckabee, former governor of Arkansas and presidential primaries contender in 2008. There is even talk that two-time presidential contender, Mitt Romney, might join the fray for the third time.

It would appear that the most exciting and tough presidential fight will be between Hillary Clinton and Jeb Bush. Should both win their respective primary elections, the epic presidential battle will be a re-match of the 1992 election between Jeb’s father, George H.W. Bush and Hillary’s husband, Bill Clinton. Both Hillary and Jeb will come into the race with solid credentials and are likely to run issues-oriented campaigns as opposed to the ideological baggage and mudslinging other candidates will bring to the table. I will like to see Hillary and Jeb contest the 2016 U.S. presidential election; happier still if at the end of the day, Hillary becomes the first woman to sit in the Oval Office at White House as Madam President.