President Obama has been a brave defender of the status quo. He has not challenged the way things work in the federal government in any substantial way. Even his signature accomplishment, the ACA, was essentially written by the Heritage Foundation and fails to contain even a public option, which he ran on, and signed away in a backroom negotiation. His foreign policy hasn't been obviously stupid like his predecessor's (that would hardly be possible) but nevertheless has been destructive of American values at home and American interests abroad. His Austerity Light was also terrible, for the way it legitimized the right wing framing (America is Broke!), and it slowed the recovery. His spying programs and prosecution of whistle-blowers is disgraceful.
Are you familiar with the website politicalcompass.org? It is a tool for evaluating your own political stances, and placing them on a grid (left-right for economic issues, up-down for social ones), and then permitting you to compare yourself to the candidates in your country or party (it is a UK site, and covers the major English-speaking countries plus Germany). I have found it fascinating and appalling all at the same time. The fascinating part is what every single person who took the test has reported back to me (take it yourself and you may discover what I mean). The appalling part is partly illustrated by the below links, regarding the most recent national elections. I suggest you read what the analysts have to say about Obama in 2008 and then in 2012, and bear in mind that as foreigners, they don't have a dog in the fight over here.
http://www.politicalcompass.org/uselection2008
http://www.politicalcompass.org/uselection2012
If you really want to investigate the site, and possibly learn something about yourself, I suggest that you take the test first, www.politicalcompass.org and look at election analyses afterwards. It is fascinating (although one thing I would love to see is a "map" of the positions of past leaders (FDR, Eisenhower, Nixon, Reagan, Clinton etc) for comparison purposes. I would love to see how the parties have moved over time. Can't have everything.).
ETA: Maybe we do want a Largo Caballero but how would we ever know? He would first have to get through the Money Primary, something Bernie Sanders is attempting right now.
http://www.ted.com/talks/lawrence_lessig_we_the_people_and_the_republic_we_must_reclaim?language=en
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