Obama I think should be a wake up call for many: there is a vast gulf between Obama the candidate (eloquent and compelling) and Obama the president (who seems to have doubled down on Bush-era policies and launched a war on "theft" at the behest of the intellectual property industry).
Is there really such a great divide? One of the main things that struck me during the primaries was was Obama's willingness to change his views based on arguments from other people, and his desire for compromises agreeable to all parties. So it seems straightforward that if you put him on top of a bureaucracy that's full of people convinced that all the Bush era policies were necessary, he wasn't going to rock the boat as much as many hoped.
Is there really such a great divide? One of the main things that struck me during the primaries was was Obama's willingness to change his views based on arguments from other people, and his desire for compromises agreeable to all parties. So it seems straightforward that if you put him on top of a bureaucracy that's full of people convinced that all the Bush era policies were necessary, he wasn't going to rock the boat as much as many hoped.