As the Obama administration and the Democratic Party finish their first year in office, what can we conclude?

First, the world remains a very unsafe place, from would-be terrorists with explosives in their underwear, trying to blow up U.S. airlines, to Iranians chasing after nuclear weapons, mother nature rearing up in devastating earthquakes in Haiti, flooding in California, climate change and a horrible, expensive and depressingly brutal winter in many parts of the United States, including sunny Florida.

Second, the U.S. economy is very fragile. More than 17 percent of Americans are unemployed or underemployed. The housing crisis continues, like one of those underground coal mine fires you don’t see, but that is burning away at people’s wealth, mortgages and life.

Third, the big banks, insurance companies and other large corporations are as arrogant as they have ever been. They are paying themselves gigantic and unwarranted bonuses, raising fees and charges for credit cards, denying health care coverage to people with pre-existing conditions, putting toxic products on the market and generally disrespecting consumers.

Fourth, the taxpayers are coughing up more and more money to bankroll all this, and they are getting depressed and restless. In Massachusetts, the most liberal state imaginable, a Republican won former Sen. Ted Kennedy’s vacant Senate seat.

So, how is President Barack Obama doing one year into his four-year term? Here is a grim observation from Jeff Greenfield of CBS News: “Mr. Obama has suffered the steepest decline in job approval of any first-year president since they started keeping such data: In most surveys, he is barely at, or under, 50 percent.” Why the bad ratings? Because President Obama was handed a can of snakes. All the problems that vex, frighten and anger Americans were handed to him on Inauguration Day.

For example, he had to save the banks and auto industry, and there were no other choices.

As Greenfield writes, “Everyone, including every decision-maker in the Bush Administration, said that without a huge influx of money, hundreds of billions of dollars worth, the financial system would collapse. That decision meant that a huge federal deficit was inevitable.”

On terrorism, Obama wanted a kinder and different approach, but now he is debating even whether to close the Guantanamo detention center.

On health reform, Obama wanted to increase coverage and cut costs, but he finds himself in almost as bad a position as the failed “Hillary Care,” which crashed and burned in the first year of the Clinton administration all those years ago. Yet, the U.S. health care system continues to eat away at people’s incomes, and at state and corporate financial solvency. At the same time, it leaves 40 million Americans uninsured, so it will eventually have to be fixed or it will destroy this country.

On what to do about Iran’s nuclear weapons, Obama has made no progress. He has not managed to turn around Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez’s deep hatred for the United States. He has not made any progress on climate change.

The American public education system remains a terrible threat to our future, and China is still eating us alive in economic performance. There is still no immigration reform, which is a festering sore that is simply ignored.

The Republicans can attack President Obama, but there seems to be a “just say no” strategy, which is not a policy. Even if the Republicans win big in the 2010 elections and take over the House and Senate, which is now a real possibility, they will have precious few choices.

Tax and spending cuts are the magic elixir of the GOP, but those only work in a growing and vibrant economy — not in one that is stagnant.

So, I believe that no matter who gets into office in Washington, they will do pretty much the same job. There are no other choices.

I’d like to bring an upbeat message to you. However, we’ve dug ourselves into a deep hole with the policies of the past 30 years, both Democratic and Republican.

Maybe issuing federal shovels to all of us would be a smart thing to do, so we can start digging ourselves out of this hole.