The President's Year in Review
HOLMES: Turn the lights out before you head out. The president is saving on electricity while he's gone. That is the White House if you can make it out in that picture. But the lights are out at the White House and the first family is gone on vacation. They made sure they didn't run up the electric bill while they were gone, but, of course, the first family vacationing right now in Hawaii. The president is there. Just like anybody else's vacation, what do you do on yours? Get a little golf in. A few security briefings, you know. Real coaster as you know for the president this past years. Some really high highs and some really low lows. Here now our White House correspondent Ed Henry with a look back.</s>ED HENRY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: The year is ending on a high note for this president, but there were a lot of bumps along the way everywhere from the political arena to the basketball court.</s>HENRY (voice-over): Maybe it was a metaphor for the year. A simple basketball game the day after Thanksgiving ended with a fat lip and 12 stitches for the president.</s>BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Let me begin by pointing out that although Washington is a town of sharp elbows, it's getting a little carried away.</s>HENRY: But as he shifts to golf here in Hawaii, the president is revealing in a series of big wins. Leaving long time friend like former Honolulu mayor Mufi Hanneman predicting come back in 2011.</s>MUFI HANNEMAN, FORMER HONOLULU MAYOR: Because I met when he was a basketball player on a basketball court, he definitely has that athletic ability to come back. Yes, it's been a rough year, but he's bounced back quite well.</s>HENRY: But in 2010, nothing came easy for the president who started the year campaigning in Massachusetts to keep the seat of the late Senator Ted Kennedy in his party's hands only to see Republican Scott Brown score a knock out of the Democrats, almost taking health care reform down, too.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ladies and gentlemen, the president of the United States of America, Barack Obama.</s>OBAMA: Thank you.</s>HENRY: In March, the president finally got his health care victory but he couldn't savor it for long. Within weeks, he was engulfed in the biggest oil spill in American history.</s>OBAMA: I'm shaving and Malia knocks on my bathroom door and she says did you plug the hole yet, Daddy?</s>HENRY: It was eventually plugged and there were other big gets too like Wall Street reform that the president campaigned on from coast-to-coast. But with unemployment still stubbornly high, he could not stop a Republican takeover of the House and surged in the Senate.</s>OBAMA: I'm not recommending every president take a shellacking like I did last night.</s>HENRY: But he picked himself off the floor and shocked Republicans with wins on taxes, a treaty and "Don't Ask Don't Tell."</s>OBAMA: One thing I hope people have seen during this lame duck, I am persistent.</s>HENRY: Now aide say he will keep a low profile here getting R&R; for what maybe another brutal year. While Mr. Obama hopes to work with the Republicans on some issues, he's also determined to stop them from gutting health care reform.</s>HANNEMAN: This is the best place in the world for him to come and recharge his batteries. Sort of bask in the Hawaiian sunshine, the food that he loved.</s>HENRY: As soon as he returns to Washington in the New Year, the president is expected to name a replacement for his chief economic adviser Larry Somers. Top aides say the state of the union in late January will be heavy on fixing the economy. The issue likely to decide his re-election battle, which is getting closer and closer. Ed Henry, CNN with the president in Honolulu.</s>HOLMES: We are getting closer to the top of the hour on this Christmas morning. We will keep you updated on everything you need to know on this day including a lot happening with the weather today that's going to impact your travel. For some trying to travel today, but also some of you folks trying to get home in the next couple of days. Stay with us.