It's 2012, decision time again: Did President Barack Obama live up to his great promise?

Politics being the art of the possible, once again Democrats and President Barack Obama are out to put a new ad to the works. This time round would it still be Change We Can Believe in, or will it be something much more nouvelle? Whatever it will be, both the Republicans and far-left Democrats have come out with sharp knives to hack away at the little gains made by the Democrats, and to point out at what they call ''the failures of an inexperienced and incompetent government''.

Because he began his first term following the worst economic down-turn since the Great Depression, achieving any positive gains was always going to be a herculean task for President Barack Obama. Are there any gains worth mentioning to the American electorate as they prepare to vote ?

We'll see in a moment. The inflation and unemployment rates are down at 3% and 4.2% respectively, compared to 5.37% and 6.5% in October 2008. This is no big deal, considering the $700 billion bail-out by the government. However, one must commend the Obama economic recovery team considering that FDR's New Deal took nearly ten years to yield any meaningful benefits. Moreover, Obamanomics is credited with putting firm controls on prices and interest rates, and with the middle class enjoying $2000 tax cuts, many people claim some breathing space.

Although there are grumbles at the slow pace of growth in the financial sector, many Americans report that they have been able to remit payments to their mortgages. Again, because people have some little money to spend, the manufacturing sector is visibly picking up. The Republicans vigorously argue that President Obama have the hard working Hank Paulson to thank for this, who surprisingly, he allowed to serve for another year in the new government. But Democrats counter that having created the mess, Paulson had to clean-up.

Not letting up, the Republicans point to one of the biggest build-up of American troops in history in Afghanistan. Is this Iraq II, they ask? Even though American combat troops eventually pulled out of Iraq in October 2010, a build-up of combat troops in Afghanistan makes President Obama more war-like than GWB. More embarrassing, perhaps, is the mysterious death of Osama bin Laden in what was referred to as a palace coup. If the main reason of troop surge was to quell the Taleban insurgency in Afghanistan and capture Osama, then this should be the gravest military misadventure of our time.

In Osama's place has risen Bilal bin Zayed, a younger, tougher, and wilier disciple, and who has put a price on President Obama's head to show that he means business. The Taleban and other tribal militants are more disciplined,and better armed- thanks to Russia and their neo-cold war sabre-rattling. May be Obama should be prepared to stay in Afghanistan for more than a hundred years.

Back in Washington, many are asking what happened to the changes they believed would come when they overwhelmingly voted for Obama. The faces they see, are far too familiar: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Chief-of-Staff Rahm Emanuel and Defence Secretary Colin Powel. Is it any surprising that Bill Clinton is more often in the news headlines than the President? What happened to VP Joe Biden?

It is going to be tough convincing Americans to put their money on change they can believe in. Maybe this time round, they will buy continuity for progress and growth. For, the devil they know is much better than the angel they don't.