Ralph Nader, who ran against the Democrat as an independent, believes Obama will not be able to overcome the vested interests of big corporations and lobby groups and policy will remain largely unchanged from the Bush era.

"My advice to Obama is to try and organise his people, because from day one he's going to be a prisoner of the giant corporations, who control the government he presides over. There will be a lot of economic crisis, wars in Iraq and on the Afghanistan-Pakistani border, and growing unemployment. So he doesn't have much room to maneuver, unless he builds more political energy among the people. Does he have a personality for that? No, he doesn't have a challenging personality, he has an accommodating personality to power and that doesn't spell very good news for the American people. he is very belligerent toward Russia, toward Iran, towards the Afghanistan-Pakistani border. Barack Obama's foreign policy will be very much like George W. Bush's second term. If anybody thinks otherwise, they better be prepared to be disappointed," Nader said.