Now, already over 18 months in the White House Oval Office, Obama has achieved little to change the system. Instead, the system is changing his ways. His public approval rating is going down by day. He is seen as one who is low on performance, high on promises. He has less than 30 months to go before he faces a fresh public mandate for the second term. Obama is worried. And, so are the ordinary, well-meaning and thinking Americans about the next change, if any.

Since his assent to the Oval Office, his main achievements in the domestic front are the passing of the promised universal health care bill for the US citizens, which failed to live up to the expectation of the needy, the low income group and senior citizens as well as the insurance companies and the healthcare management. The new bill was passed, but the old ailment of the system continues. Similarly, a bill has been passed to protect the unemployment benefit for those who are jobless for a year by another six months. However, there is no job generation agenda or job guarantee for the unemployed. His latest financial sector regulation act providing near blanket authority to the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) to deal with the greedy and the offenders may face legal hurdles in view of the super regulatory body's latest failings in protecting investor interest and strongly addressing their concerns. His proposed tax break to small private enterprises to encourage additional job creation is being challenged by Republicans, who have been touting for tax sops for the big business and the rich for higher economic growth and lower budget deficit of the federal government.

The problem of a huge federal budget deficit, provisionally estimated at $1.5 trillion for the current year representing about 12.3 per cent of GDP, is constantly haunting the administration and has become the biggest talking point of the Republicans. The federal budget deficit reached a record level of $1.4 trillion in 2009, following an uncovered commitment to additional fund to maintain the US military presence in Iraq and Afghanistan by Obama's predecessor George Bush. Obama has failed to reverse the military engagement policy pursued by the Bush administration in Iraq , Afghanistan and Pakistan . Before he took over as the president, Obama promised to shut down inglorious Guantanamo Bay prison and release its illegal captives. He also promised to engage Iran into bilateral talks on nuclear issues. Both the promises failed. It appears that the US military agenda in the region is unlikely to be minimized soon. This would continue to cast a negative impact on Obama's foreign policy initiatives. The latest media leak of over 90,000 top secret US military correspondence, revealing how the Pakistan-Taliban alliance killed thousands of American soldiers in Afghanistan with the help of American aid and billions of dollars worth American war equipment, has further exposed the futility of the so-called fight against terror in the region. The expose' has created a huge embarrassment to the helpless and direction-less Obama government before his own partymen.

There is no definite sign of an early mitigation of the financial burden of America 's war against terror on the domestic economy. More nilly than willy, the Obama administration had gotten itself in the war trap set by his predecessor. The biggest sufferer is the US economy and its people. The US defense spending, which is never very clear for want of reliable official published data on 'defense related expenditure outside the defense budget', in the fiscal 2011 is budgeted for $707 billion — $43 billion more than the budget estimate for fiscal 2010. These budgets include the cost of 'overseas contingency operations' but leaves out other 'defense-related expenditure' outside the department of defense (DoD) budget. For instance, the additional component in the defense related expenditure in the fiscal 2010 was close to $300 billion. The actual US defense expenditure for the fiscal 2011 would certain to exceed $ 1 trillion. Once again, Obama is not in control of the country's defense expenditure. The US has already spent over a trillion dollars of tax payers' money in the Iraq-Afghanistan war over the last 10 years.

The growing trade deficit, which is estimated to be close to $500 billion for the fiscal 2011, poses another major threat to the US economy and employment. The latest data released by the US department of commerce put the international trade deficit in May, 2010, at $42.3 billion, the highest in 18 months. The trade deficit with China alone accounts for almost 50 per cent of the total trade deficit. According to a Fox News analysis, the trade deficit with China reduced the US GDP by over $400 billion in the fiscal 2010. The Chinese Yuan is reportedly undervalued by 40 per cent. Like Bush, Obama appears to be helpless about controlling consumer imports from China , the single largest threat to the US job market. A visit to the outlets of the $400-billion-plus retail giant Wal-Mart, America's largest company by sales and its biggest importer of consumer goods, will show how they are dumped with cheap China-made products. Undervalued Yuan has made it happen. These imported products are killing tens of thousands of domestic jobs and putting additional pressure on the government and economy. Like his predecessor, Obama does not want to confront China on the Yuan issue. This is despite the fact that the US unemployment rate has surged to nearly 10 per cent. Another seven per cent of job seekers are only partially employed, the highest in recent memory.

Yet, the good news is the US is slowly coming out of the economic recession although it has nothing to do with the trillion-dollar bank bail-out, engineered by Bush and delivered by Obama. It is because of the average American's obsession with consumption and continuous quest for better living. Marts are dressing up. Prices too are firming up. During the current fiscal, the economy is poised to grow by a little over two per cent. Banks, propped up with taxpayers' funds, are back on their feet. Several of them have reported encouraging first quarter financial results. A sense of confidence among investors seems to be returning to Wall Street. However, there is no guarantee that the confidence will last for long. Republicans, who are principally responsible for the country's internal financial bungle and military mess-up externally, are loudly blaming Obama for all the failures.

Unfortunately, Obama and his Democratic Party are not strongly reacting to these criticisms. Inexperienced in administration, Obama seems to be more busy with routine matters than providing strong leadership to the party to deal with the continuous political onslaught by Republican leaders and their strategists. Prone to frequent administrative goof-ups, Obama, the first black American president, has to lately face even a racist slur over the summary dismissal of a black agricultural department woman officer on false charges at the behest of a White House official. His agricultural secretary had to publicly apologize to her for the 'mistake' with the offer to reinstate her in the job in the face of a nation-wide media criticism over the issue.

If Obama managed to become the president of America, it was all because of the overwhelming support he got from the black community, Hispanic community and Asian Americans. Although this minority section of the American people is still with Obama, but a sense of dejection and doubt is brewing up among these hitherto neglected groups in US politics about the President's ability to bring about the change in the American system which he so emphatically promised before the election. Come November, Obama will need their support for mid-term elections of senators and house representatives for a decisive victory to bring about any change in the US global and local policies. (IPA Service)