Obama, like FDR, had a reasonably successful first two years: a stimulus package that, while too small for the circumstances, was still large by historical standards,, and a health-care bill that while subpar in myriad ways, still far exceeded the efforts of other recent Democratic presidents.

And then, unlike FDR, he ran into a grassroots movement of the right. Historians will long debate why the financial collapse of 2008 produced a right-wing populist movement and not a left-wing one. Perhaps it's because Obama didn't take on Wall Street; perhaps it's because with labor unions so weak there's just not the organizational muscle to create such a movement; perhaps it's because trust in government is so low that pro-government populism is almost impossible.