After Iraq, Bush became gun shy. In the past, we would not have blinked an eye at bombing Iran nuclear facilities. But Obama will be much worse than Bush on middle east policy. Obama is more Carter-like. I think there will be an urgency to attack Israel during Obama’s term, knowing the response will be weak.
George Bush traded a much-needed pre-emptive strike on Iran for his Quixotic vision of a Democratic Iraq which will magically transform all the Islamo-fascist countries in that region into bastions of freedom and democracy, Iran included (presumably in the same way that a democratic Poland was the domino that started the collapse of the Soviet Bloc, and the USSR itself). In so doing, W also provided “top cover” for Obama to do nothing to fulfill his campaign promise (remember?) that Iran would not be allowed to develop nuclear weapons.