Little Hawk, I agree that Dennis Kucinich is right in what he is doing. Unlike Cindy Sheehan, I don't hear him calling out for us to abandon Barack Obama and support a third party (or stay home) in the next election. He is open about his disagreements with Obama but apparently not ready to throw the proverbial baby out with the bath water.
You say "I am quite disappointed with what Obama has done so far. I still like him quite well as a person, but I feel that he is failing to deliver on the genuine change he promised...and I wonder why. Is it because he can't face down the existing power elite? That's quite likely. Or is it because he is in service TO them? That's a distinct possibility too.
Those are the crucial questions."
I agree, those are crucial questions. And I fear that a lot of the answer lies in the stranglehold that the huge multinational corporations have over our election process and our media. Even now, as Obama is playing "centrist" and trying futilely for "bipartisan" support for legislation, the media (with the exception of a very few talk radio shows and MSNBC TV shows) are echoing and reinforcing the absurd notion that the right wingers are justified in calling him a "liberal" and perhaps even "an extreme liberal" and maybe even a "socialist." Can you imagine how they will skewer him if and when he actually ACTS like a liberal?
Our politicians can't even get elected to the House of Representatives without spending half their time fundraising, and if the big corporations (e.g., oil, agriculture, pharmaceutical, insurance, tobacco) not only withdraw their support but put their millions or billions to work destroying a candidate.
Obama never did have much of a honeymoon with the media, and it gets worse by the week. E.g., when they report that "Obama's popularity is plunging," a) they make it sound like his approval rating is near that of Dubya's in 2008 (when it's still a little over 50% in a very divided country), and b) they often subtly insinuate that his loss of support is due to his being too far left (when a lot of his loss of support is for the opposite reason). The media give major, generally uncritical, air time to the looney loudmouths who set out to prevent dialogue in the Democrats' town halls and even to the scarier thugs who are stirring up the public toward violence (e.g, bringing semi-assault weapons to within range of the President or spewing rhetoric that portrays this very moderate Democrat as some sort of despot deserving of assassination).
I don't know what all is going on, but I do know that Obama is having a hard enough time herding the 'cats' in the Democratic Party to support even moderate social and financial reforms. If he really digs his heels in and goes for true progressive policies, will he have a chance to persuade Congress and the people, or will the media mask and distort his messsage so as to sabotage the effort?
I would say, though, that I think he (as well as Pelosi, Reed, etc.) need to brush up on their skill at bargaining. You don't strike a very good deal when you present your final offer as your opening bid. You're bound to end up with no deal or one where you get way less than half a loaf.