'World News' Political Insights: President Obama Builds Foundation From Wreckage

WASHINGTON, Dec. 19, 2010 -- Nothing motivates members of the majority party quite like knowing they'll be in the minority soon.

Out of the wreckage of a disastrous election, and to the surprise of most political observers, a lame-duck session that figured to be mostly mop-up duty has become enormously productive -- both on the policy and the political fronts.

The dizzying range of accomplishments has blurred party lines in some instances, and drawn them more thickly in other areas.

And perhaps the only major political figure who can plausibly claim victory in all of the major areas is President Obama.

It will get harder from here, but the seeds of a political comeback -- or, at least, the suggestion that such a comeback is possible -- have been planted in the interim period before Republicans take over the House.

In the tax cut bill the president signed into law Friday, Obama defied members of his own party and reversed himself on a critical campaign pledge.

But the result was a tax cut for virtually all Americans, a big boost of stimulus-style spending he was unlikely to get with a Republican Congress, and a signing ceremony where the president could come across as larger than Washington politics.

The repeal of the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy is a major win for the president on social policy and national security.

It delivers on a promise that's of particular importance to the Democratic Party's liberal base, and the law the president is poised to sign sets up an orderly process for the Defense Department to implement the change that will allow gays and lesbians to serve openly.

The ratification of the START treaty with Russia, which now appears likely to come in the Senate this week, would give the president a foreign policy win that enhances his credibility on the international stage.