WASHINGTON (AP) — For President Barack Obama, the opening months of his second term have been a frustrating reminder of the limits of presidential power and the durability of the Washington political apparatus he disdains.

Obama has yet to achieve a significant second term legislative victory, a task that will only get harder as the calendar inches closer to next year's midterm elections. A trio of controversies roiling Washington have emboldened Republicans eager to gain an advantage over the president and revealed a Democratic establishment willing to publicly second-guess the White House. And Obama, who ran for office as an outsider pledging to overcome Washington's bitter partisan divide, acknowledges he's made little progress on that front.

"What's blocking us right now is the sort of hyper-partisanship in Washington that, frankly, I was hoping to overcome in 2008," Obama told donors at a Democratic fundraiser last week.