I think the author is not blaming Obama so much as free enterprise. Note his use of the words “Chicago-school of market mania”. What utter nonsense! The four tigers of Asia: Honk Kong, South Korea, Singapore, and Taiwan have been successful in no small part to “Chicago-school believe in free markets and free minds”. Much of the success of China and India has been due to “Chicago style economics”. Our failures have been because we moved away from that school of economics.
You appear to be the only person (other than me) who read the article. For all those who commented without reading, this is actually a pro-Obama article. The author’s premise is that free markets are so mistrusted now because of the crash that not even Obama’s tremendous popularity could make the trip a success.