Why is America Disappointed with Barack Obama?

What has Barack Obama done in the past year that his popularity has declined from 80 to 50 percent? This is something that often happens when a president gets stuck in a Watergate or a Vietnam-Iraq situation. Nothing like that has happened with Obama, but still American intellectuals are saying disappointing things. They are saying that Obama’s record over the past year has been so bad that he cannot become president again. That also means he will not be able to accomplish anything special in the next three years, either. The recent Massachusetts defeat has been a tremendous setback. For 47 years this seat was occupied by Democrat Ted Kennedy.

Now, Republican Scott Brown’s victory is considered Obama’s defeat. In particular, the disappointed atmosphere has arisen because, during the election campaign, Obama had created waves of hope. While riding on this, he first defeated Hillary Clinton from his own party and then Republican McCain. Americans thought Obama would be an energetic, cultured and responsible president. Now, one year later, they are disappointed and they are the ones who are responsible for this because they thought Obama was a magician.

However, America’s economic condition is so bad and global politics so complex that neither can be corrected by magic. It seems not to be enough that, given the way Bush left the economy, it hasn’t become worse, unemployment has not increased from 10 percent, the dollar has not further devalued or that people are not running away from America. Obama prevented banks and car companies from going bankrupt, handled the slump in real estate and tried to create new jobs. For the first time in the history of America, he has taken step that will ensure that no American will die due to lack of medical treatment. American medical treatment is so expensive that millions of poor and blacks cannot even dream about getting it. Obama has planted flowers of compassion in this desert. Obama is no Mahatma Gandhi who can motivate Americans to live simply, but he has created some policies to make sure that America’s pollution gets reduced. Just like Bush, he also did not accept the Kyoto Protocol, but at Copenhagen he announced $100 billion for developing nations to fight against pollution.

No doubt, Obama has not achieved any magical success in the foreign policy area, but isn’t it true that Obama’s world is much different than Bush’s world? It is true that Obama was not able to stick to his promise to shut down the Guantanamo torture center, but he has been able to limit the torture for sure. As far as Iraq is concerned, in April 2009, he himself went there suddenly and announced that, in August 2010, all American troops will be brought back. Similarly, in July 2011, American troops will return from Afghanistan. If something like this truly happens, then wouldn’t Obama become a superstar? Obama must be given credit for the fact that he did not hand over just a check to Pakistan. That is, even if Obama’s first year wasn’t very good, it didn’t prove to be disappointing either. Don’t know why America is disappointed.