Reason  No. 4 : The Affordable Care Act was an albatross for the president for much of the last two years, even as internal polling on both sides shows it has gained popularity.

It was the defining policy initiative of the president's term, but the process of enacting it wasn't pretty.

Republicans picked apart the law in the 2010 campaigns, using Nancy Pelosi's infamous line — that Congress had to pass the law so that voters could find out what was in it — as a symbol of a messy and backroom legislative process.

Members of the president's liberal coalition, meanwhile, resented both the secretive negotiations and the lack of a single-payer option in its final version.

On the list of reasons why Democrats lost their sizable House majority in 2010, the law known as “Obamacare” ranks high.

With the health care law, Obama achieved one of the Democratic Party's longest-standing policy objectives, but paid a dramatic price for it.