his starting choices have been. Living in North America as I do I am slowly coming to the opinion that Obama is turning out to be something of a dud. To be clear, the guy has written himself into history already so it really doesn't matter what he does or doesn't do for the next three years. OK, the Conservatives detest the guy for a whole slue of reasons. Some do hate him for the fact that he isn't White but it isn't as widespread as you'd think. They detested Clinton equally and he is a White Southerner. Anyway, open KKK-style racism is fairly rare nowadays and the Far-Right have learned the effectiveness of 'dog whistle' politics and inferrence. The problem for Obama is that many progressives and independents are unhappy with the guy and see him as too careful and (small 'c') conservative. In the end he may land up with few friends. Some of the comments above are decidedly odd; they seem to assume that it's simply "okay" to automatically hate a politician based solely on political grounds. If that's the case it seems to me a rather sad one to adopt. I mean, I can see why you'd hate Clinton if your a social conservative of a certain bent - though would you want Gingrich or Limby in your corner? And I can see why you'd hate Bush - I mean how many things do you want...? But what has Obama actually done that any reasonable person