Why?

I couldn't list all of the reasons when he was still in office and it was fresh in my mind. Every day I would read of things that made me want to slam my head into a wall, in every category of governance! I have never come across a full compendium before, what could have bothered me the most? The appointment of unqualified religious-school graduates or donor children as administrators, war coordinators, or regulators who couldn't do their jobs right and will now remain in our political system forever with disproportionate amounts of credential or power? The laughable EPA, FDA, CIA, NASA, Department of Justice, or economic oversight committee leaders each caught lying to the American public while doctoring data and damaging the national interest?

 Perhaps it was Rumsfeld's private military force, flayed civil liberties, our shattered reputation abroad, the African aid programs that brought a giant increase in African poverty to every area touched, military mismanagement, Addington writs, security firms like Blackwater, the wonderful educational reforms brought by No Child Left Behind, or Rove's "Dirty Tricks" lectures... It is depressing most of the problems I know about come from people who wrote books after leaving his administration mid-way through.
　
This did not drive me automatically to Obama. Obama seemed very charismatic but a bit hollow in his positions during the beginning of the 2008 campaign, as though he were trying to start a cult of personality. I initially wanted John Edwards to win since his views on poverty and suffering coming to an end might be realized to massive effect, BUT he seemed actually to have other hidden priorities....

I was elated to see the historic change on inauguration day but now I am cynical. No reforms have been passed properly, Americans don't understand what blue dogs are and think that the Democrats are in control of the 2010 congress, Copenhagen has replaced Kyoto, [whine whine whine whine whine whine whine whine].