After winning swift approval of the stimulus, the administration struggled to push other initiatives through a balky Congress as concern heightened about mounting deficits.
The proposed diplomas await approval by the Board of Regents, and the senator reaffirmed his commitment to pushing the initiatives through.
During Mr. Clinton's first half term, almost every time the public was ready to give up on him he redeemed himself by pulling a budget bill or a crime bill out of his hat, showing even those voters who opposed his programs that, unlike his predecessor, he was capable of pushing vital domestic initiatives through Congress.
President Bush, though he lost the popular vote in 2000 and though many believed that the Florida recount was unjustly halted by the Supreme Court, nonetheless had little trouble pushing his first initiatives through Congress, including one of the largest tax cuts in history.
When employees see their leader selling to a customer, or pushing an initiative through the organization, it sends a message that no one is too big or too important to engage in salesmanship.
With control of only one chamber, and an antagonist in the White House, the Democrats won't be able to push through initiatives on their own.
House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) confirmed Wednesday that he intends to sue the Obama administration over its use of executive actions, which have been used to push through initiatives without congressional approval.
Short of a landslide, presidents have a brief honeymoon period in which to push major domestic policy initiatives through Congress.
Whether the president can push his health care initiatives through Congress now is seen as a critical measure of how well he has maintained political momentum.
But critics have accused Dr. Pollard of pushing through initiatives without regard to their impact on the community and without an appreciation for the institution's history.
By 2012, more than a million people had received free therapy as a result of the initiative Layard helped push through, working with the Oxford psychologist David Clark.
