President Obama did his best to accentuate the positive in looking back on the year, talking up recent economic gains and the idea of compromise with Republicans while pledging to continue issuing executive actions and wielding his veto pen to protect his top priorities.

Setting aside his lame-duck status, deep losses in the midterm elections and a series of foreign-policy crises that contributed to his sagging poll numbers, the president said the U.S. economy has come roaring back this year and America is in a period of “resurgence.”