The worst thing I ever felt about Obama was when I heard about that sentence in his memoirs, "I chose my friends very carefully..." Even at a young age, due to his background, he was lived a life of self-repression, where he had to behave in certain ways to keep in good with the eyes of others...carefully choosing his friends to make sure that his persona didn't suffer in the eyes of those who mattered.
Why? Why would that bit of self-revelation make you react with 'the worst I ever felt' about him?
Does not surprise me in the least that this man considering his childhood and his circumstances, starting out from his first breath as an 'other' no matter which culture he found himself in, (black child in a white world, then black child in Indonesia, then black in a white world again)...would defend himself by finding a way to fit. Indeed, a way that could elevate him, eventually, within the dominant group, not only to equal footing - but possibly above and beyond it. Overachieving and ingratiating himself was what he chose - with a few spates of rebellion. I think the 'passion' you believe is missing is there; it simmers underneath.
According to his memoirs, Obama's mother was also acutely aware of what Barack needed to do to compete...and drilled him relentlessly...those 5 am lessons before school. It was her way of preparing him and protecting him.
So yes he frustrates me too. I want to see more fire. But, fire isn't what we're going to get, not consistently anyway. I understand it and have adjusted to it. Bottom line, I think he's a good guy and a good president.