As a student at a liberal school in a predominately liberal area of the country, I can’t help but notice that the hope for progress and change that prompted hundreds of my fellow classmates to rush onto the quad the night Obama was elected has faded. Obama rode that wave of hope through the election, hailed as the catalyst of change for an executive branch that had struggled under the George W. Bush administration. Despite this initial enthusiasm, however, in my mind and the minds of many others, Obama has fallen short of our expectations. What was the linchpin that reversed so many of our opinions?