One of Sarah Palin's signature accomplishments in her two-and-a-half year stint as Alaska governor is coming under renewed scrutiny and could have implications for the 2012 Republican presidential race should she decide to run.

As the Alaska legislature prepares to convene for its annual 90-day session beginning on January 18, an Anchorage Daily News report on Friday revealed growing momentum among state lawmakers to roll back the tax on oil profits that Palin pushed through in 2007.

Dubbed Alaska's Clear and Equitable Share (ACES), the oil taxes hike was extremely popular among state Democrats and received enough Republican support to become law.

Palin was widely credited at the time for being the first Alaska governor to effectively take on the oil companies that wield enormous influence in the state, and she alluded to the achievement frequently during her 2008 vice presidential run.

But a growing chorus of Alaska Republicans who supported ACES when it was enacted four years ago - including current Gov. Sean Parnell, who was then Palin's lieutenant governor - are now advocating for changes to the law amid concerns that it has hampered investment in the oil business that funds about 90 percent of the state's budget.

"I think we did get it wrong, and we've got the figures and it's a lot of money," Republican state Sen. Tom Wagoner, who voted in favor of ACES in 2007, told The Anchorage Daily News.

Though ACES served as the cornerstone for the maverick persona that Palin touted in 2008, the law could become a double-edged sword should she decide to launch a presidential campaign later this year.

A substantial contingent of fiscal conservatives in Alaska panned the tax hike from the beginning, and future Republican primary opponents could use it to question the extent to which Palin's small-government rhetoric matches her record.

On Friday, former Alaska Gov. Frank Murkowski, who lost his 2006 re-election bid to Palin in a Republican primary, wrote an op-ed in the Juneau Empire to advocate changing the oil tax system that Palin enacted. The tax plan that Murkowski initiated before ACES replaced it was widely criticized for giving too many concessions to the oil companies, but Murkowski suggested that his plan was now being vindicated.

"Alaska was in the mid range of oil tax regimes for competitiveness under the Murkowski Administration, but enacted the highest marginal tax rate in the world under Palin," Murkowski wrote. "Alaskans simply cannot compete with the Gulf of Mexico for oil and gas exploration and development capital by imposing a tax that is twice the amount charged there."

A Palin aide did not respond to a request for comment on the former governor's view of potential changes to ACES and the uncertain status of the natural gas pipeline project, which was her other signature achievement in office.

The Alaska Dispatch reported last month that a federal agency forecasts that construction for the gas pipeline will not become economically feasible until about 2035.

Andrew Halcro, a former Republican state legislator who ran for governor against Palin in 2006 and has since remained a vocal critic of her, said that he expects both ACES and the gas pipeline project to become problems for Palin if she runs for president.

"Even as governor in a short period of time, she made decisions based on populism rather than practicality," Halcro told RealClearPolitics. "In another year, these things are going to become very clear, so time is not on her side, as far as assessing her time as governor."

A new poll conducted by the Democratically affiliated firm Public Policy Polling (PPP) shows troubling numbers for Nevada Republican Sen. John Ensign. Ensign, who would be seeking his third Senate term in 2012, currently trails Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman in one hypothetical matchup by 10 percent and also runs slightly behind three other potential Democratic challengers.

Ensign's approval rating stands at a mere 35 percent among Nevada voters, according to the PPP poll, and it is at a dismal 22 percent among independents. Only 26 percent of those polled said that they wanted to see their state's junior senator re-elected.

Among Nevada Republicans, only 42 percent want Ensign to run for re-election, while 48 percent want him to give up his seat.

The PPP poll was conducted among 932 Nevada voters between January 3 and January 5 and has a margin of error of +/- 3.2 percent.

Ensign's seat could represent a valuable pickup opportunity for Democrats, who are thought to have a particularly challenging outlook in the Senate in 2012, since they are slated to have to defend 21 of their own seats plus two independents who caucus with them, while only 10 Republican seats will be up that year.

Ensign became mired in scandal in 2009 after he admitted to an affair with the wife of a top aide and fell under investigation before he announced in December that the Justice Department would not press criminal charges against him.

According to PPP, Republicans would have a much stronger chance of holding onto Ensign's seat if they were to nominate Nevada Rep. Dean Heller, who led four potential Democratic opponents in matchups that PPP tested in its survey.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich's advocacy group American Solutions on Thursday launched a website to support congressional Republicans' fight to defund and repeal the health care reform law.

In an email to supporters, Gingrich described the new site, NoMoreObamaCare.com, as an "action center" for citizens who want to get involved in promoting efforts to repeal President Obama's signature domestic achievement.

The newly empowered Republican House intends to make health care repeal a focal point of its legislative agenda beginning with a vote for full repeal scheduled for next week. The repeal effort that is widely expected to die in the Senate.

"Repealing ObamaCare is going to be a long and challenging fight, but if the millions of people receiving this email all get involved, there is no doubt we will succeed," Gingrich wrote in the email to supporters.

The website contains a petition for repeal and a map that includes information on how users can get involved in the effort locally. The site also urges readers to contact their representatives in Congress and to write letters to the editor in favor of repeal.

Gingrich said that the new site will feature the latest news on repeal efforts and views on how the health care reform law is impacting the economy.

Like the other potential Republican presidential candidates, Gingrich has been a longtime critic of the health care reform law. Last month, he lauded the Virginia court ruling that declared the individual mandate included in the law to be unconstitutional, calling it a "huge victory" in what was shaping up to be a "very long, difficult fight."

In Washington D.C. on Wednesday to collect a new award for fiscal responsibility, Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels made the rounds as he ponders a presidential bid.

Daniels was in town to give a speech at the inaugural "Fiscy" awards, which honored him along with Wisconsin Republican Rep. Paul Ryan and North Dakota Democratic Sen. Kent Conrad for demonstrating leadership over fiscal discipline in their government roles. But the Hoosier held several off-the-record political meetings and appeared on MSNBC and CNN in a continuing cat-and-mouse game with the press as he builds his national name recognition in advance of a potential bid.

He began the day with a glowing profile on the front page of the business section of the New York Times about his stewardship of the Indiana economy during his tenure as governor.

Daniels was the subject of several other items on the New York Times' Web site throughout the day, including one post detailing the fiscal problems he may have to address if he does launch a national campaign.

The Times' post suggested that the transition of a budget surplus to a deficit during the first term of George W. Bush's administration when Daniels was budget director deserves some explanation. Answering on CNN Wednesday afternoon, the governor largely blamed the burst of the dotcom bubble. Pushed on the doubling of the debt and the increasing size of government during the six years of both a Republican White House and the GOP Congress, Daniels explained, "Some of my biggest fights were with members of my own party."

Daniels also argued, in a preview of the defense he'd likely have to employ should he run for president, that the Bush administration's budgetary decisions were far better than the ones made during the last two years under Obama. "The numbers show it," he said.

On MSNBC Daniels was drawn into a battle over tax policy and his unwillingness to sign a pledge to oppose any and all tax increases. He pointed out that in Indiana as governor he implemented a rebalancing of taxes that raised the sales tax while reducing property taxes dramatically.

And all of this came just a few days after another reminder that his family is concerned about the media intrusion that comes along with a presidential bid, and his concern for his family -- a detail that led some media outlets to conclude that he doesn't sound all that interested in the White House. The back-and-forth continues to keep the political class buzzing.

During the awards presentation, both Ryan and Conrad heaped praise on Daniels, with Conrad - a Democrat - turning to Daniels and saying, "I admire your leadership. We need more of that in the country, and we certainly need it here in this town."

For his part, Ryan boasted Daniels is a leader who has provided an example of how to get a state into fiscal health. "This is a guy who can show other states what it's going to take," Ryan said.

In his own remarks, Daniels offered hints of what might show up in a Republican presidential primary stump speech - providing some humor in an otherwise dry environment when he began with a series of jokes about his own cheapness.

Speaking about the tax system, Daniels emphasized the importance of economic growth and the need for tax reform, stressing that serious changes will be the only way to fix the nation's economic woes, rather than "quick, easy fixes."

Republican sources in Indiana say Daniels is about 75 percent of the way in for a presidential run. The last 25 percent of his decision will come during the next four months of the Indiana legislative session, when he will try to pass education reform and a budget.

It the meantime, however, Politico reported this morning that Daniels has accepted an in invitation to speak at the Conservative Political Action Conference on February 11 - yet another sign he's thinking very seriously about a bid for the White House in 2012.

Former Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean said on Wednesday that the demographics of the 2010 midterm electorate were much "older" and "whiter" than what was seen in 2008 and added that he expected President Obama to benefit from a larger pool of voters in 2012 that would be younger and more diverse.

"I think it's likely that the president will win re-election as a result, perhaps not with the same large number of states," Dean said at a breakfast meeting with reporters hosted by the Christian Science Monitor.

In breaking down Obama's chances in individual swing states that turned blue in 2008, the former Vermont governor and 2004 presidential candidate said that he expected Indiana would be difficult for the president to win and that North Carolina would be "very tough."

But Dean was particularly bullish about Obama's chances of carrying Virginia for a second time after defeating Republican nominee John McCain there by 6 percent in 2008.

"When you consider how big the president's margin was in Virginia in 2008, again barring some huge screw-up, or events we can't know anything about now, all things being equal, if the election were held six months from now, I think the president would win in a presidential campaign in Virginia, and I think probably maybe by a bigger margin than he did the last time."

Dean noted that as DNC chairman, he created a strategy by which the Democratic nominee could win the presidency without winning Ohio and Florida - one that relied on a string of victories in western states, including Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and potentially Arizona.

Dean said that former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney would be a particularly strong challenger to Obama in a general election but did not expect him to win the Republican nomination, citing his universal health care overhaul in Massachusetts - which remains unpopular among Republicans - and his Mormon faith as being particularly damaging handicaps among significant segments of the GOP primary electorate.

On the day when 85 new Republican members of Congress were being sworn into power, Dean said that the grassroots conservative movement would continue to play an important role in 2012. Though he said that he believed the tea party's foundation was based on economic principles, Dean was also blunt in his assessment of the mentality that he said pervaded its ranks.

"I think it's a group of older folks who've seen their lives change dramatically - the country's not the same," Dean said. "Every morning when they see the president, they're reminded that things are totally different than they were when they were born, and I think that has a lot to do with it. It's not just the economy. The economy and the economic uncertainty fuels all of this, but this is the last gasp of a generation that has trouble with diversity, and the new generation doesn't."

Dean said that it would be "incredibly unlikely" and "foolish" for a Democrat to run against President Obama in 2012 and again ruled out the idea that he might consider a primary challenge to the president.

"I certainly wouldn't entertain it, and I hope that nobody would," Dean said. "Historically, challengers to incumbent presidents of either party don't win, and they weaken their president."

Dean's name had been floated as a possible primary challenger to Obama in some progressive circles. But although Dean was an emphatic opponent of the health care reform law and has publicly disagreed with Obama on other issues, his support for the president's re-election bid was emphatic as he echoed his office's previous statement that he had no interest in challenging Obama.

"Barack Obama is the best chance that we have of holding onto the White House in 2012, and I intend to support him," Dean said.

As newly elected Republican members of the House of Representatives seek to make the transition from successful campaigning to effective governing, their party's leadership intends to roll out an initial agenda for the 112th Congress that some media reports have described as being largely symbolic.

After all, the proposal to cut legislators' budgets by 5 percent will make only a tiny dent in the federal budget, the vote to repeal the health care reform law is widely expected to be dead on arrival when it makes it to the Senate, and detractors dismiss the planned reading of the Constitution on the House floor as a publicity stunt.

But according to incoming Republican House freshmen and the small-government adherents who fueled their rise to power, these first steps that the new Congress plans on taking have real and potentially far-reaching implications.

Incoming Republican Rep. James Lankford (OK-5) said that his constituents elected him and his freshmen GOP colleagues primarily to downsize government and that the office budget cuts will make for an important first step, despite their relatively minor impact on the overall financial state of affairs.

"I think you start with the easy parts of it, and you begin to move to things more difficult as the session progresses," Lankford told RealClearPolitics in an interview on Tuesday.

Lankford did not share the view that the vote to repeal health care reform will be primarily symbolic in nature and said that it was a worthwhile endeavor to pass the repeal legislation in the House and try to compel senators to defend the law that they voted to pass.

Lankford was even more effusive in his defense of incoming House Speaker John Boehner's planned public reading of the Constitution.

"Honestly, as a freshman member, I was surprised that we didn't do that already - that there wasn't already a time to say, ‘Let's review,'" Lankford said. "It's the classic argument that at the end of a bad football game, the coach pulls out the ball and says, ‘Let's start over from the basics. This is a football.' And I feel like that's where we are with Congress right now. We have been overspending, we've been overregulating, we've been running over the basics of the free enterprise system. It's time for us to say, ‘This is the Constitution.'"

Writing in the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday, Cato Institute scholar Roger Pilon argued that the public recitation of the Constitution would "help get a debate going that for too long has been dormant."

"You have to distinguish between ‘symbolic' and ‘merely symbolic,'" Pilon told RealClearPolitics. "Of course, the left is claiming these steps are ‘merely symbolic.' But symbolism is important."

Pilon said that the House's upcoming vote to repeal health care reform was poised to begin as a symbolic move, but he was optimistic that it would initiate a chain reaction that would lead to defunding aspects of the law.

"The point is to throw down the gauntlet, to lay a marker, and then to get the debate going over the fundamental constitutional question - namely do we have the constitutional authority to do so much of what we're doing today," Pilon said. "After this vote next week is taken, we will then get down to the detailed examination, part by part, of Obamacare with votes to rescind - and far more importantly - to defund those various parts."

Republican freshmen know that they ultimately will be judged on the results they produce, and not their initial outreach to their base. Their task for the next two years will be to balance the tactics that are at least somewhat designed to make a point with results-oriented proposals that are intended to produce concrete accomplishments.

In a statement to RealClearPolitics, incoming Republican Rep. Bill Johnson (OH-6) said that his party's initial agenda is shaping up to accomplish both feats. "These early votes and actions are practical measures that will show the American people that the 112th Congress got the message: stop the reckless spending and focus on getting our economy back on track," Johnson said.

Large GOP gains in Congress may carry some downsides for the Republicans who hope to challenge President Obama next year.

For one thing, with Republicans in charge of a piece of the government, it shoulders the GOP with some responsibility and could hinder the party's ability to create a full contrast with Obama. But there's another problem that doesn't lack significance, either: staffing.

Republicans new to Capitol Hill are hiring key staff: chiefs of staff, advisers, communicators. And there's already been a bit of a brain drain from former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney's last presidential campaign.

Today, Florida Sen.-elect Marco Rubio announced his top staff, which included three former Romney campaign hands. Sally Canfield, who served as Romney's policy adviser, will be Rubio's legislative director and chief policy adviser; Joe Pounder, who was in charge of rapid response for Romney, will be Rubio's communications director; and Alex Burgos, who directed specialty media for Romney, will serve as director of media affairs for Rubio.

A former campaign aide to Romney said it shouldn't be taken as a reflection on the Bay Stater or his ability to run successfully for the nomination.

"Jobs with Marco Rubio are the most sought-after jobs in politics. And with Scott Brown, too," the former aide said. "These are jobs of a lifetime."

Brown, too, has taken a few staffers from Romney's last campaign. Gail Gitcho, who was a press secretary for Romney, serves Brown as communications director. And Colin Reed, another Romney aide who was deputy director of the rapid response center, is now Brown's press secretary.

The list extends to other key staff. While the top advisers that amount to Romney's kitchen cabinet will return in some capacity, a chunk of managers and middle-range staff have moved up and on. And some key GOP operatives who at some point have considered working for Romney or in the presidential field generally have taken other positions in Washington, as well.

Former Romney staffers have explained, not surprisingly, that after four years of adding valuable experience to their resumes, they're qualified to do more than what was called for in their former roles. Nevertheless, the staffing puzzle puts a dent in the argument that Romney can pull together the best team in the field, although most other teams also have yet to form. What it does complicate is the conventional wisdom that Romney can fire up his same former team on a moment's notice when he takes his second plunge -- and it takes away the argument that he'll have a high degree of continuity from his last staff and campaign to the next one.

Carl Forti, who was Romney's political director, makes big spending decisions - media buys - for the Karl Rove- and Ed Gillespie-led venture, American Crossroads and Crossroads GPS, leading Politico to brand him recently as "Karl Rove's Karl Rove."

A former Romney staffer said that Forti wouldn't return to Boston because in his current role, "He has the best job in politics."

Some of the political staffers under Forti have moved on and also plan to stay put. Gregg Keller, the former national coalitions director for Romney, is the executive director for Ralph Reed's Faith and Freedom Coalition, and Joe Wall, a former regional political director, is now doing political work in Washington for Goldman Sachs. Mike Britt, another regional political director, has joined Wynn Resorts in Las Vegas as a vice president in charge of government affairs.

From the press part of the operation, Matt Rhoades, the communications director in the last campaign, is widely expected to be campaign manager in the second effort. Former national press secretary Kevin Madden continues to advise Romney on messaging but is unlikely to return full-time to the coming campaign.

Most of the rest of the press shop working under Madden, Rhoades and traveling press secretary and longtime aide Eric Fehrnstrom, however, have not just moved on from the department, but likely won't be returning to Romney's next team.

In addition to Rubio's collection of Burgos and Pounder and Brown's hires last year of Gitcho and Reed, incoming House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy of California picked up Sarah Pompei as communications director. Pompei was a press secretary on Romney's last campaign. Joanna Burgos, who also worked on Romney's communications team, was just named deputy communications director for the National Republican Congressional Committee.

Tim Albrecht, who was Romney's Iowa communications director, recently joined Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad's office as communications director. And Romney's deputy communications director, Carolyn Weyforth, moved west to become the chief operating officer of The Jonas Group. Stephen Smith, who was director of online communications for Romney, is now Digital Director of Purple Strategies, a media affairs firm led by Alex Castellanos, a former ad maker for Romney.

Former Romney director of eStrategy Mindy Finn was a co-creator of Engage, a Republican Internet firm that helped GOP candidates build Web sites and social networking strategies. She currently advises former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty's online activities.

Other staffers outside the press and political departments aren't planning to return, either, after landing bigger roles.

Mike Reed, for example, who was a research analyst for Romney, recently signed on to be research director of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. Another former research analyst, Kyle Plotkin, is spending his time as press secretary to Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal. And Mark Glanville, who was director of advance, is now a sports consultant in Los Angeles.

As one operative put it, "These people got some hot positions. These are unbelievable jobs that these people are getting."

Of course, there are some key former advisers in early nominating states who have indicated that they are in search of other candidates or have not committed to Romney yet. And privately, some participants in the last race think Romney's path to the nomination in 2012 is a difficult one.

Still, even some former staffers say that in his second run, Romney will need some fresh blood and new perspectives to plug into his operation. And after the grueling 13 months that was his first national campaign, some say that will be a welcome change.

Republican Rep. Mike Pence is planning to headline Lincoln Day Dinners throughout Indiana, his home state, according to the Indiana political insider site, Howey Politics Indiana.

The site concludes that Pence is leaning toward running for governor rather than for president, and an Indiana Republican quips, "If he is running for President, it would be an interesting and novel strategy. We could call it the Win Indiana Strategy!"

But a Pence spokesman advised RealClearPolitics, "I wouldn't double guess or try and read too much into it," and reminded that an announcement about either race has not yet been added to the agenda.

News of the Indiana-based tour comes just on the heels of Red State's Erick Erickson's blog post Monday in support of Pence. The conservative blogger says he'll support the GOP presidential nominee, whoever it turns out to be, but that he actually is excited by Pence.

The congressman has been building up national recognition among social conservatives and delivered a major economic address in Detroit last month.

Still, Indiana Republican sources have told RealClearPolitics that Pence continues to build up a national profile and fan speculation about a presidential run because he can and needs it to boost his typically lackluster fundraising. Continued pursuit of a presidential bid helps him to grow his donor base and gain some name recognition, both for a potential governor's race and a presidential bid in a future cycle.

Lt. Gov. Becky Skilling announced last month that she will not run for governor in 2012; Indiana operatives believe that amounts to a cleared path for Pence.

Few major differences emerged Monday in a debate between the five remaining candidates vying to chair the Republican National Committee, but the four candidates hoping to oust current chair Michael Steele pushed the need to restore "credibility" to the committee.

That message was an indirect jab at the criticisms that have arisen over Steele's leadership of the committee. But Steele revealed himself to have learned some lessons that may have been lost of the others, including the boundaries of the job, as well as the perils of a litmus test for GOP recruitment.

"It's time for some tough love at the Republican National Committee," former Missouri GOP chair Ann Wagner said in her opening statement in what was a tame debate at the National Press Club. Daily Caller editor Tucker Carlson and Americans for Tax Reform President Grover Norquist moderated.

Saul Anuzis, an RNC committeeman and former Michigan GOP chair; Maria Cino, a former deputy chairwoman of the RNC and Pfizer lobbyist; and Wisconsin GOP chair Reince Priebus, a corporate litigator and former RNC general counsel joined Wagner in emphasizing the enormous amount of money the RNC will have to raise to retire its current $20 million debt and to compete with President Obama's fundraising apparatus in 2012.

Steele defended his chairmanship by noting that he began his tenure during a very difficult climate for the party but still managed to guide the party to historic victories.

When asked what has been the biggest failure of Republicans, Priebus answered, "not doing what we say we're going to do."

Anuzis and Priebus emphasized that Republicans have had difficulty winning elections and holding seats in the past because they have not acted as Republicans.

Cino agreed, but she received one of the biggest applause lines of the 90-minute forum when she first said that the passage of McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform legislation was the GOP's other biggest flop. She presented herself as the most experienced political and state operative and gave some additional details about what she would hope to implement at the RNC, including a 96-hour program rather than a 72-hour program.

But Priebus, who has the most public commitments among the 168 members of the committee, pushed party unity while also suggesting that some who are not conservative enough may not be Republicans.

"We are not in competition with the conservative movement," Priebus said. But both he and Wagner, who some operatives believe have the most momentum coming out of the debate, warned that on some level, if candidates don't agree with a variety of principles the party espouses, they may not be Republicans. Anuzis, citing Ronald Reagan's famous maxim, suggested that candidates should agree with the GOP platform at least 80 percent of the time.

Steele, however, argued for a bigger tent philosophy, saying, "We cannot be party that sits back with a litmus test and excludes."

Asked to voice opinions on a spate of policy questions, the candidates arrived at mostly the same answers. However, Steele interjected at one point to remind the audience that he was scolded at times last year by Republican leadership in Congress who told him that as Chair of the RNC, "You don't do policy."

All five candidates also agreed that former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin could win the 2012 general election.

The RNC chairmanship will be decided by the 168 committee members in multiple rounds of voting on January 14.

As President Obama prepares to return to Washington amid a newly empowered Republican Party, he is being met with some encouraging new poll numbers.

According to the latest rolling three-day sample conducted by Gallup, 50 percent of Americans now approve of Obama's job performance-the president's highest mark in seven months. According to Gallup, 42 percent of Americans now disapprove of the job Obama is doing.

Gallup's polling is conducted by telephone interviews and has a margin of error of plus or minus three percent.

According to the latest RealClearPolitics poll average, Obama's approval rating stands at 46.5 percent, while 48.0 percent disapprove, and the Gallup poll is the only poll of the six currently in the average that shows his approval rating at 50 percent or higher. Still, the positive trend from the closely watched Gallup poll will provide welcome news for a White House that is trying to build on the momentum it generated during the lame-duck session of the 111th Congress. Obama returns to Washington from his Hawaiian vacation on Wednesday and new members of Congress are sworn in this week.

After the Democratic Party's electoral drubbing in November, Obama was able to reel off a string of notable achievements in Congress the following month. Obama won enough Republican votes to reach a compromise deal on extending the Bush tax cuts, ratify the New START nuclear arms treaty with Russia, repeal the military's Don't Ask Don't Tell policy, and pass a health care funding bill for 9/11 first responders.

But beginning on Wednesday, Obama will have to deal with a newly invigorated Republican Party that will take control of the House of Representatives and increase its minority caucus in the Senate by six seats.

In Obama's weekly YouTube address on Saturday, the president said that economic news over the last few months suggests that the recovery is "gaining traction"-a perception that, if shared by American voters in the coming months, is likely to keep his approval rating on the rise.

Obama also noted that Republicans will now face a new level of responsibility in being judged on their results.

"I'm willing to work with anyone of either party who's got a good idea and the commitment to see it through," Obama said. "And we should all expect you to hold us accountable for our progress or our failure to deliver."