Over the past twenty months, progressives, realists, and even some sensible conservatives have been disappointed by various aspects of the Obama administration's foreign and defense policy. Convinced that his election would mark a dramatic departure from the Bush administration's many missteps, they have been surprised and dismayed by Obama's increased reliance on drone attacks in Pakistan and elsewhere, his decisions to escalate the war in Afghanistan (not just once but twice), the retreat on Guantanamo, the Justice Department's use of dubious secrecy laws to shield torturers and deny victims the ability to sue them, the slow-motion reassessment of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," the timid retreat from the lofty principles enunciated in his 2009 Cairo speech, and the unwillingness to consider anything more than trivial redutions [sic] in the bloated national security apparatus.

• The failure to prosecute serious felonies on the part of the previous administration, especially the senior torture perpetrators in the Cheney-Bush government and the Pentagon, could be taken as the Original Sin of the Obama administration: morally, legally and politically. Taken on this task, which is a serious legal obligation they are failing to meet, would have sent the Republicans into a frenzy, which of course happened anyway. But it would have forced the Obama administration to see the Republicans as the Party which presented them with the most serious competition for power, rather than seeing a phantom group of Republican "moderates" as partners in implementing the Washington Consensus/neoliberal program of deregulation of business, freeing the wealthy from taxes and the progressive reduction of public services that benefit the majority (especially Social Security).

• Obama's economic program focused on stabilizing the financial system with minimal disruptions. So the banks were "bailed out" but given a break on accounting rules that let giants like Citibank and Bank of America avoid being put into government receivership and reorganized. The "bailout" was unpopular but necessary. Unfortunately for the majority, policies of job creation that were necessary and would have been popular were a strictly secondary priority, if even that. One exception was the reorganizing and "bailout" of General Motors, which saved many jobs and was strictly opposed by John McCain and the Republicans because they preferred to see GM go completely out of business so that the United Auto Workers would be badly weakened. If voters now have the perception that the economic recovery program has primarily bailed out the wealthy and neglected the awful unemployment situation, that perception is based in reality.

• The financial reform put important new consumer protections in place. But it omitted the kind of regulation that would have adequately restrained the kind of wild speculation by our geniuses of finance that crashed the world economy in 2008. For Obama and the $30,000-per-plate guests at his fundraising appearance in Connecticut, that may be an omission to chuckle over. For most people, not. The Obama administration is even pressuring the European Union not to adopt stronger regulations.

• The health care reform that passed includes some real expansions of health care but was essentially an industry-friendly bill that imposes the "individual mandate" the insurance lobbyists wanted but excluded the critical public option. The result is a seriously flawed plan that can all-too-easily be sabotaged by the Republicans in the coming years. Jane Hamsher discusses some of the reasons why Obama supporters might be seriously disappointed over Obama's deal with the insurance companies to make sure the public option was excluded from his health care reform bill in Obama Mocks Public Option Supporters Firedoglake 09/17/2010.

• In the BP Gulf Oil disaster, the administration deferred to BP to a remarkable extent and pointedly declined to use the disaster as a classic example of the need for government regulations with integrity and the need for the elected government to protect the interest of the public against irresponsible actions like those of BP.

• Perhaps most telling of all, after Congress rejected setting up the Catfood Commission to abolish Social Security, Obama set it up by executive order and designed it to be stacked with people who are committed to the phase-out of Social Security. The Catfood Commission's report is due in December, safely after the elections.

• Also telling by their neglect, the administration has essentially dropped their promise for Employee Free Choice Act, which would provide a major long-term benefit to prosperity and progressive politics by increasing the number of unionized workers, and has hid behind the artificial 60-vote requirement in the Senate to not enact comprehensive immigration reform. On the latter, he has instead embraced the Republican demand for further militarizing our border with Mexico and sent additional forces there, with no corresponding concessions by the Republicans.