""FDR became a great president because the mass protests among the unemployed, the aged, farmers and workers forced him to make choices he would otherwise have avoided," wrote Piven.

But Piven's advice went unheeded, and absent grassroots pressure Obama has chosen these past three years to conciliate rather than confront the status quo. The result? A lacklustre record of domestic achievements, unemployment over nine per cent and poll numbers that call into question his re-election, despite a remarkably weak cast of Republican opponents. No US president in modern history has won re-election when the unemployment rate was over 7.5 per cent."