The  first couple of years that President Barack Obama was on the world  stage, he was receiving applause, admiration and high hopes from  citizens and governments around the world.

Fast forward to 2012.

That  perception is no longer so optimistic and many around the world who saw  a chance for hope and change from the new President of the United  States are feeling let down and disappointed.

While  those in foreign lands still prefer having the President be given  another 4 years in office, the star power he once enjoyed has faded. The  luster has come off and the disappointement is being voiced.

In  Europe, where more than 200,000 people thronged a Berlin rally in 2008  to hear Barack Obama speak, there's disappointment that he hasn't kept  his promise to close the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, and  perceptions that he's shunting blame for the financial crisis across the  Atlantic.

In Mogadishu, a former teacher wishes he had sent more  economic assistance and fewer armed drones to fix Somalia's problems.  And many in the Middle East wonder what became of Obama's vow, in a  landmark 2009 speech at the University of Cairo, to forge a closer  relationship with the Muslim world.

In a world weary of war and  economic crises, and concerned about global climate change, the  consensus is that Obama has not lived up to the lofty expectations that  surrounded his 2008 election and Nobel Peace Prize a year later. Many in  Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Latin America were also taken aback  by his support for gay marriage, a taboo subject among religious  conservatives.

"We all had high hopes for him," said Filomena  Cunha, an office worker in Lisbon, Portugal, who said she's struggling  to make ends meet. "But then things got bad and there's not much he can  do for us over here."

Obama's rock-star-like reception at  Berlin's Victory Column in the summer of 2008 was a high point of a  wildly successful European campaign tour. The thawing of a harsh  anti-Americanism that had thrived in Europe was as much a reaction to  the Bush years as it was an embrace of the presidential hopeful.

Those  high European expectations have turned into disappointment, largely  because of the continued U.S. military presence in Iraq and Afghanistan  and Obama's failure to close Guantanamo Bay in the face of vehement  congressional opposition.

Obama's views on Europe's financial  crisis also have rankled some on the continent. In September, he said  the crisis was "scaring the world" and that steps taken by European  nations to stem the eurozone debt problem "haven't been as quick as they  need to be."

The Obama administration describes the eurozone  crisis as a European problem that needs a European solution. The U.S.  and Canada last month refused to participate in boosting the  International Monetary Fund's financial resources to manage the crisis.

"I  think people see through his game to put the blame on Europeans - I  think Germans and Europeans still know where the economic crisis had its  beginning," Braml said. "That's just finger-pointing, not doing a fair  analysis of the dire situation in the U.S., but I can understand Obama  is doing that because he wants to get re-elected so they need to shift  blame around on the Republicans or the Europeans."

Many in the  Mideast also would like to see Obama win a second term, though they feel  he has not lived up to his Cairo speech, in which he extended a hand to  the Islamic world by calling for an end to the cycle of suspicion and  discord.

Obama has been the U.S. president "least involved in the  Palestinian issue," said Mohammed Ishtayeh, an aide to Palestinian  President Mahmoud Abbas.

Obama also has a strained relationship  with Israel, where Bush was popular. Obama and Israeli Prime Minister  Benjamin Netanyahu have been cool to one another in their handful of  meetings. Obama's Mideast envoy, former U.S. Sen. George Mitchell, made  no progress during two years of frequent meetings with both sides before  quitting last year.

"Concerning Israel, he has proved that he is  not absolutely rigid but is willing to reconsider when confronted with  facts that he would not have expected," said Avraham Diskin, a political  scientist at Jerusalem's Hebrew University.

"He began very inexperienced on all fronts, but he is a very intelligent person and Israelis see that," Diskin added.

In  Iraq, site of the war that fed much of the international community's  dislike of Bush, Obama has received some credit for pulling out combat  forces last year.

"President Obama has removed so much of the  cowboy image of America that has been imprinted in the mentality of  Iraqis by Bush," Baghdad lawyer Raad Mehsin said.

But Carawan  Ahmed, a high school teacher in Iraq's northern Kurdish capital of  Irbil, said Obama has ignored the Kurdish minority, which continues to  struggle against the Shiite-dominated government.

"When  Democrats, including Obama, are in power, we lose the sympathy and  support from America. To be frank, the Republicans protected the Kurdish  people, while Obama's administration is not," Ahmed said.

In  Mogadishu, former schoolteacher Fadumo Hussein retains a shaken support  for Obama, but disapproves of the mounting casualties from U.S. drone  attacks on Somalia's al-Qaida-linked insurgency while the country's  humanitarian need is neglected.

"He only sent drones, not enough assistance," Hussein said. "We don't need bombs, but other means of assistance."

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/O/OBAMA_WORLD_VIEW?SITE=AZPHG&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

From the Cornfield, reality sure can bite the hype and fantasy.

As I have said before, all that glitters is not gold.