I share your disappointment in President Obama. Even though I never idolized him like a lot of people did prior to his election, I did expect more and better action. it’s true that the federal government and the military-security-industrial complex have their own momentum. Just like it’s hard to turn an aircraft carrier around quickly, it’s hard to turn the country around quickly. And there are definite risks for Obama in taking bold moves: remember what happened to President Kennedy. Even apart from the danger of a coup like the one that killed JFK, there are probably thousands of people who hate Obama mainly because he’s black and who have been incited by propaganda that paints him as a socialist, a Muslim, a foreigner, and as an illegitimate president. That must give him pause. And of course, as Paul Krugman pointed out, he was the most conservative of the Democratic candidates for president, so it was probably never wise to expect him to initiate radical change.

I don’t know what’s going to happen. Just hang on tight and hope for the best, I guess.

Speaking as someone outside the US, I’m disappointed in Obama too. I figured things would start to turn around. Oh, not everything; I’m not so unrealistic that I believe a president’s hands aren’t tied by what’s come before and by the realities of things around him. But how hard, really, would it be to step down Iraq and Afghanistan? Even Nixon managed it with Vietnam, and the sacrifice made in terms of US blood there was far greater. If not an end to the wars, I at least expected a Democrat, and a man who faced discrimination, to stand up for civil rights and the US Constitution. How strange, how sad, how puzzling that he has not. It must seem like the last gasp for a lot of liberals and progressives in the US… even their best shot now falls short of the mark. Even for someone like me, it’s disturbing.

It’s sad how many similarities there are between the Obama admin and the Bush one- very sad. Just goes to prove there’s really very little real difference between the two parties.