It's senseless to think that Obama could ever hope to deliver on the kinds of extravagant expectations which were bandied about pre-election.
Much was made of the fact that he is America's first black President and it was theorised that he would attempt to push through sweeping reforms aimed at tackling the colossal problems of inequality and racism. This mirrored similar (dashed) expectations in Britain by campaigners for women's rights following Margaret Thatcher's election victory. But whilst both were genuine novelties it was less about gender or the colour of Obama's skin than the
class whose interests they served.
Unlike genuine reformers such as John F. Kennedy and FDR, Obama never arrived in office with the degree of independence great wealth and/or the connections and influence of a patrician family provided. In order to raise the vast sums of money necessary to conduct an effective campaign he was forced to cut deals with the major Wall Street banks and investment firms as well as the big media and technology conglomerates. Affiliation with the former dashed any hopes the American electorate had of long overdue banking reforms in the wake of the sub-prime collapse - not to mention a thorough investigation into how it occurred. Worse still, these ties doubtlessly played a role in securing not just bailouts (literally forced through in a secret, highly-undemocratic and possibly illegal fashion) but the titanic economic stimulus packages the major part of which was gleefully divvied up among his benefactors. And let's not forget that it was Wall Street which neutered Obama's medical reforms just days before submission by publicly threatening to switch allegiance to the Republican Party in the Wall Street Journal.
If Obama needed to slice some of the fat off spending to invest in social reforms (or just attempt to balance the books) the logical choice would be the trillion-dollar post-Cold War money pit which is the military. With over 1,100 bases worldwide (not including those with less than a hundred staff or the numerous and rapidly growing centres for covert operations) it shouldn't be difficult to find savings. But when George W. Bush tried to phase out a handful of effectively redundant domestic bases he quickly realised his error when a coalition of former five star generals wrote a series of politically damaging articles in the major press.
Obama isn't the most powerful man in the world. He's not even the most powerful man in America. It's laughable to think that when his chums from the Federal Reserve, Goldman Sachs, Citibank etc. are invited to the White House they dutifully nod their heads in submission and then ask him to autograph their napkins.
