Barack Obama is a reluctant people's president, but to become a great president and deliver on his promise of "fundamental change in Washington" he has to act like one.

To end the war in Iraq and win in Afghanistan, create jobs while reining in corporate excess, usher in a green economy, and reform health care, he has to fall back on his community activist roots. Simply put, Obama rise to the presidency has more in common with Bolivia's Evo Morales and Venezuela's Hugo Chavez than with that of George Bush.