I was very opposed to Obama's position on Afghanistan (and Pakistan) before he was elected. I much preferred him, however, to McCain, and that was the choice the voters were offered...so if I was American, I'd have voted for Obama.

The candidates whose foreign policy positions I did agree with were Dennis Kucinich and Ron Paul.

I suspected that Obama would continue the "war as usual" policy once elected, and my suspicions have been confirmed.

I've always found him to be a very good speaker. People were inspired by Obama because he is such an eloquent man and because he seemed to offer the possibility of change, and they hoped he would change things in the direction they wanted...meaning AWAY from the legacy of the Bush administration.

What politician gets elected promising "more of the same"? ;-) Only incumbents do, and only in prosperous and/or confident times. If you're going to see a change of the party in power, you're going to have a politician get elected who promised "change"...because that's what people always want if they're in a mood to throw out the governing party.

Obama talked the line that would get him elected, and he did it brilliantly. Now we're dealing with reality, and that's a different matter.