I BEG YOUR PARDON, I ONLY PROMISED ME IN THE ROSE GARDEN:

Former allies turn on Obama over his failure to deliver on campaign promises (Tony Allen-Mills, 11/22/09, The Sunday Times)

It was not just that the US media have suddenly turned a lot more sceptical about a president with grand ambitions to reshape politics at home and abroad -- even one previously friendly newspaper noted dismissively: "Obama goes to China, brings home a T-shirt." Nor was the steady decline in the President's approval ratings -- which fell below 50 per cent for the first time in a Gallup poll last week -- the main cause of White House angst. Mr Obama remains more popular than Ronald Reagan or Bill Clinton a year after their elections, and both presidents eventually cruised to second terms.

The real problem may be Mr Obama's friends -- or rather, those among his formerly most enthusiastic supporters who are now having second thoughts.

The doubters are suddenly stretching across a broad section of the Democratic Party's natural constituency. They include black congressional leaders upset by the sluggish economy; women and Hispanics appalled by concessions made to Republicans on healthcare; anti-war liberals depressed by the debate over troops for Afghanistan; and growing numbers of blue-collar workers continuing to lose jobs and homes.

Mr Obama's Asian adventure perceptibly increased the murmurings of dissent when he returned to Washington, having failed to exact public concessions from China on any major issue.

For most Americans, the most talked-about moment of the trip was not the Great Wall visit but his low bow to Emperor Akihito of Japan, which Mr Obama's right-wing critics assailed as "a spineless blunder" and very deferential.