Zum Jahreswechsel ziehen Kommentatoren in den USA eine Zwischenbilanz des ersten Obama-Jahres. Sie fällt bescheiden aus:

And just to make sure even the dimmest understand, Obama banishes the term “war on terror.” It’s over — that is, if it ever existed. Obama may have declared the war over. Unfortunately, al-Qaeda has not. Which gives new meaning to the term “asymmetric warfare.”
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=ZWI2MGE2YTE4MzM4M2QyMTE5ZWE0OWI0Y2E3OTZiMGU=

Clueless. It’s the word that best describes the Obama administration’s first year in office. They’ve proven themselves clueless about creating jobs; clueless about handling growing nuclear threats from Iran and North Korea; and now, most devastatingly, clueless about protecting Americans from terrorist attacks on our own soil. And with nearly one year under the belts, they can’t keep blaming the Bush administration for everything that goes awry.
http://townhall.com/columnists/LindaChavez/2010/01/01/clueless

When you’re president of the United States, you can’t pass the buck to your superior. In response to this frustration, President Obama has developed what systems people like to call a “workaround”: He passes the buck to his predecessor. A lot. He started blaming Bush during the presidential campaign, which was natural enough. Here is candidate Obama on Iran, for example: “It is time to turn the page on eight years of policies that have strengthened Iran and failed to secure America or our ally Israel.” But after becoming president, Obama just kept on going. On climate change: “After eight years in which there was resistance to even acknowledging the problem, I think my administration has been very clear that we intend to be a leader on this issue internationally.” On trying terror suspects: “The decisions that were made over the last eight years established an ad hoc legal approach for fighting terrorism that was neither effective nor sustainable.” And now, on the failed Christmas Day terror attack. http://www.commentarymagazine.com/viewarticle.cfm/obama-s-year-of-living-blamelessly-15328

So here we are after all the apologies, all the bowing, all the trashing of Bush, all the Cairo speeches and al Arabiya interviews: Putin brags about a new generation of nuclear weapons, bullying his neighbors and doing nothing to stop Iran; Iran kills its dissidents while we sleep and promises a bomb to come.  Chavez wants one too, and Syria does it best to destroy Lebanese autonomy. And that is just the beginning. http://pajamasmedia.com/victordavishanson/a-humpty-dumpty-view-of-the-world/

President Obama has belatedly declared that the near miss above Detroit constituted “a catastrophic breach of security” and ordered a review of America’s intelligence efforts. We’re glad to hear it, but let’s hope the Commander in Chief also rethinks his own approach to counterterrorism. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703278604574624503147162222.html

The United States has not even begun to do what it could—rhetorically and concretely, diplomatically and economically, publicly and covertly, multilaterally and unilaterally—to try to help the Iranian people change the regime of fear and tyranny that denies them justice.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/31/AR2009123101745_2.html