There may have been some missteps there, but for the most part I think Obama's problem was he was too timid to seriously hold anyone's feet to the fire and too anxious to restore the status quo ante.
For anyone interested in this line of thinking, I highly recommend reading Ron Suskind's "Confidence Men: Wall Street, Washington, and the Education of a President". [1]
As a Washingtonian, I can safely say that there are many actors who prefer the status quo, however flawed it might be, to an unknown other.
