[WS:] I do not know why someone would expect that. Even during his campaign, O sounded like a center-right politician, promising to work with Republicans and advancing a fundamentally Republican agenda (e.g. health care reform or privatization of public education.) I think people should give him a credit for delivering most of his campaign promises, except rescinding tax cuts for the rich.
I had no illusions about his program (which I did not like) and I voted more against McCain than for O (on that premise I voted for Hillary in the primaries because I though she had a better chance against McC, but I like her even less than O) . The only positive change that I saw was a change in political rhetoric - O sounded like a world-class statesman, wheres Hillary sounded like yet another American politician (McC sounded like a bumbling idiot, which I presume his constituents appreciated.) But beyond that, I had no illusion that O would make any change that I would like to see.
My only objection to this administration handling the tax issue is that they seemed to make a rather stupid tactical error - they should have proceed with the vote on their proposal and let the Republicans to filibuster it.
The end outcome would have been more or less the same, but Republicans would have spent much of their political capital.
Wojtek