Barack Obama, the US president, was voted in on a wave of optimism promising hope and change.

But two years later, a back wash of popular disaffection from the left and the growing resonance of the Tea Party on the right could mean a very different result in the 2010 midterm elections.

Although Obama's name is not on the ballot, Tuesday's elections are widely seen to be a test on his popularity.

But a limp economy and high unemployment figures could mean that those who chanted "Yes we can!" may now be thinking "No he has not". 

On Monday's Riz Khan, we speak to world-renowned British-Pakistani writer and critic, Tariq Ali, who argues in his new book The Obama Syndrome that Obama's promise of change for a better future is really a rebranded continuity of the past.

This episode of Riz Khan aired from Monday, November 1, 2010.