The American electorate that voted for change in 2008 has been completely disappointed by President Obama.

He's a hollow politician not a statesman; a corporatist DINO of placatory, conciliatory, ingratiating actions rather than a real Democrat upholding and fighting for the common good and general welfare.

Obama is more of a Bushite and a triangulating, Third Way (with all its negative connotations) Clintonite, definitely not an FDR Democrat.

More and more people are getting Obama's number.

In the realm of foreign policy, Obama, like Bush, appears to be clueless, and he is completely tone deaf, failing and flailing about and in Afghanistan.

Dilip Hiro writes at TomDispatch:

"Irrespective of their politics, flawed leaders share a common trait. They generally remain remarkably oblivious to the harm they do to the nation they lead. George W. Bush is a salient recent example, as is former British Prime Minister Tony Blair. When it comes to foreign policy, we are now witnessing a similar phenomenon at the Obama White House.

"Here is the Obama pattern: Choose a foreign leader to pressure.  Threaten him with dire consequences if he does not bend to Washington’s will. When he refuses to submit and instead responds vigorously, back off quickly and overcompensate for failure by switching into a placatory mode.

"In his first year-plus in office, Barack Obama has provided us with enough examples to summarize his leadership style. The American president fails to objectively evaluate the strength of the cards that a targeted leader holds and his resolve to play them.

"Obama’s propensity to retreat at the first sign of resistance shows that he lacks both guts and the strong convictions that are essential elements distinguishing statesmen from politicians. By pursuing a rudderless course in his foreign policy, by flip-flopping in his approach to other leaders, he is also inadvertently furnishing hard evidence to those who argue that American power is on the decline -- and that the downward slide of the globe’s former “sole superpower” is irreversible."

Hiro offers these examples: Obama's flip-flopping on Honduras, China, and Afghanistan's Karzai; a naive Obama trumped by a wily Netanyahu; and he and his administration's myopia, unpreparedness, and woodenheadedness regarding the Brazil/Turkey/Iran negotiations.

As to the latter Hiro writes: "Ever since assuming the presidency of Brazil in 2003, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has, when necessary, not hesitated to challenge U.S. policy moves. He has clashed with Washington on world trade (the Doha round), global warming, and continuing U.S. sanctions against Cuba.

"He was critical of the way Obama compromised democracy in Honduras, and, despite the Obama administration’s dismay and opposition, he invited Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to Brasilia in November 2009 for talks on the Iranian nuclear program, his first attempt at high-profile international diplomacy.

"Acting in tandem with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, da Silva revived a putative October 2009 nuclear agreement and brokered an unexpected deal with Ahmadinejad.  Iran agreed to ship 1,200 kilograms of its low-enriched uranium to Turkey; in return, Russia and France would provide 120 kilograms of 20% enriched uranium for a medical research reactor in Tehran.

"Taken by surprise and rattled by the success of Brazil and Turkey in the face of American disapproval, the Obama administration reverted to the stance of the Bush White House and demanded that Iran suspend its program to enrich nuclear fuel. It then moved to push an agreement on further U.N. sanctions against Iran, as if the Brazilians and Turks had accomplished nothing.

"This refusal to register reality was myopic at best. The blinkered view of the present White House ignores salient global facts. The influence of mid-level powers on the world stage is on the rise. Their leaders feel -- rightly -- that they can ignore or bypass the Obama administration’s demands. And, on the positive side, they can come together on certain international issues and take diplomatic initiatives of their own with a fair chance of success."

Actually the last paragraph shows a refreshing reality about the global scene which Obama and his administration don't appear to understand.