The popularity of U.S. President Barack Obama is now at its lowest level, and the reason is very clear. During his presidential campaign, he made numerous promises, but almost none of them have been fulfilled.

During the election campaign, Obama said the economic crisis was the most important challenge on the domestic front. He claimed to have a very clear plan to deal with the crisis and promised to take legal action against those responsible for creating such a mess, but in practice, Obama’s economic policies have been more or less the same as those of the previous administration.
The mistakes were also repeated in the realm of foreign policy. Obama pledged to withdraw all U.S. troops from Iraq 16 months after he was elected and even promised to eradicate the warmonger attitude of the U.S. government. But over two years since Obama came to office, U.S. forces are still in Iraq and the U.S. defense secretary is speaking about extending the U.S. military presence in the country.
Another issue in foreign policy was Obama’s promise to build trust with the Islamic world, which excited many Muslims in the United States and other parts of the world. In fact, many African Americans voted for Obama partly on the basis of that promise, but unfortunately it was not materialized.
Recent polls show that Obama’s popularity is declining day by day. It is not clear if Obama can win the next presidential election, but it could be said that if the election were held today, Obama would not be reelected.
There are two factors that could affect Obama’s reelection campaign. First of all, the situation could change in the 16 and a half months until the next election. In addition, although the Democrats have had many problems in fulfilling their promises in the Obama era, the Republicans have not been able to win the people’s support and the majority of U.S. citizens are still against them. Thus, given the terrible record of the Republicans, the voters will choose the lesser of two evils, and in such a situation, they will reelect Barack Obama.
A decline in voter turnout in the next U.S. presidential election is a serious possibility. Because of Obama’s unique characteristics, more citizens became interested in participating in the previous election. However, given Obama’s inability to fulfill his promises, it is expected that a smaller percentage of the electorate will cast ballots in November 2012.
And then there is the issue of U.S. foreign policy in regard to the Arab Spring.
In fact, the U.S. has applied double standards toward the recent Arab uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa. For example, Washington’s approach toward Libya is totally different than its policy toward Bahrain. For each country, the U.S. has adopted a specific strategy. Many U.S. officials were well aware of the dissatisfaction with and hatred of the U.S. and Israel in the Middle East and North Africa. However, they did not expect such a massive and quick series of uprisings to sweep across the Arab world.
The U.S. security and intelligence agencies were quite surprised by the massive wave of demonstrations in various Arab states, but now they are looking for a way to manage and control the situation.
These hegemonistic policies may be successful in some Arab countries, but ultimately, it can be said that a new Middle East has emerged and the countries of the region are not going to serve U.S. interests as before. This will be another challenge for the Obama administration in its remaining time in the White House.
Foad Izadi is a professor of U.S. studies at the University of Tehran.