WASHINGTON: Amid talk of fading allure and promises not kept, an embattled President Obama, bruised by economic, political, and foreign policy crises in his first year in office, has pledged to stop US companies from taking jobs overseas and warned Americans about increasing competition from China and India.

In his first state of the union address on Wednesday delivered amid severe economic downturn and his own dwindling popularity, Obama addressed the issue of loss of jobs to foreign markets, saying to encourage
businesses to stay within the United States "it is time to finally slash the tax breaks for companies that ship our jobs overseas, and give those tax breaks to companies that create jobs right here in the USA."

As has now become the norm, the President invoked the growth of China and India to gee up the home constituency on the economic front, where a continuing slow-down and job loss has bedeviled his first year in office.

"Washington has been telling us to wait for decades, even as the problems have grown worse," he said, referring to the enervating political gridlock in the capital that he blames for stymieing some of his
initiatives. "Meanwhile, China is not waiting to revamp its economy. Germany is not waiting. India is not waiting. These nations -- they're not standing still."

"These nations aren't playing for second place. They're putting more emphasis on math and science. They're rebuilding their infrastructure. They're making serious investments in clean energybecause they want those jobs. Well, I do not accept second place for the United States of America," he added.

The US President also set a target of doubling US exports over the next five years, a goal that will inevitably bring pressure on countries such as India to open its markets, as he pledged "to continue to shape a Doha trade agreement."

"We have to seek new markets aggressively, just as our competitors are. If America sits on the sidelines while other nations sign trade deals, we will lose the chance to create jobs on our shores. But realizing those benefits also means enforcing those agreements so our trading partners play by the rules," he said.

In an address that was largely devoted to domestic issues, Obama also signaled to the international community that Washington intended to ease its way out of Iraq and Afghanistan while securing itself at home through better homeland security and preventing terrorists from getting their hands on weapons of mass destruction.

Only a few minutes and a bare 800 words of his 70-minute/7000-word address were devoted to foreign policy as the first African-American President in US history battled the perception that he has lost his way in Washington. In sharp contrast to the many Bush speeches, he mentioned the word terror or terrorists only twice in his speech; there were nearly 50 references to jobs and economy, a clear indication of where the Obama administration’s emphasis will be in the remaining three years of its term.

In an elaborate appraisal of the state of the US economy, President Obama explained how government’s bail-out of big banks was inevitable despite everyone, including himself, hating it (he compared it to a root
canal). But now that the "worst storm has passed" it was time for Democrats and Republican to "overcome the numbing weight of our politics" and address issues such as health care and initiatives for job creation and economic growth.

But it was his quick glossing over of the crises in Afghanistan and Iraq, including promise of a rapid withdrawal of US troops, that was most striking. "In Afghanistan, we're increasing our troops and training Afghan security forces so they can begin to take the lead in July of 2011, and our troops can begin to come home," he said. "We are responsibly leaving Iraq to its people. We will have all of our combat troops out of Iraq by the end of this August."

"This war is ending, and all of our troops are coming home," he said to repeated applause at a joint session of law-makers where 9/11 is a distant memory and there is clearly no appetite for continued attrition abroad amid severe domestic crises.