MANILA, Philippines — It’s that time of year, when the US President reports on the state of the nation, and plans for the future. With the 2012 elections coming up, President Obama’s speech was both the conventional report and a bid for reelection.

On the foreign policy front, his administration could take credit for the death of terrorist Osama bin Laden, and winding down the troop presence in Iraq and Afghanistan. While American policy is to avoid military conflict, he reiterated Defense Secretary Leon Panetta’s statement that America would not tolerate the development of a nuclear weapon by Iran, and added that “I will take no options off the table to achieve that goal.”

With the money that will be saved from wars abroad, the President outlined a vigorous agenda to create good jobs at home, build infrastructure projects, and promote energy independence through further investment in renewable energy projects.

To increase government resources, Obama called for letting the Bush-administration corporate tax cuts expire, and for adopting Warren Buffet’s rule that millionaires (like Mr. Buffet himself) should pay at least 30 percent of their income in taxes so that they don’t pay “less than the middle class.” He would deny tax breaks to companies that outsource their work abroad and provide tax credits to companies thatbring jobs back home. He asked Con-gress to stop interest rates on student loans and extend tuition tax credits to keep young people in school since the higher education they achieve, the better their job prospects.

Obama may win reelection by default. The Republican line-up is not inspiring. Mitt Romney is clearly the best qualified but he is enormously wealthy – his tax returns, which he released on request, show that he made $45 million in income over the past two years – which may not sit well with voters who have been out of work for the past six months.