What leads you to believe Obama is not an idiot?
Several things:
1. This very topic: that he has planned to introduce government dependence on a widespread scale (Obamacare, debt spending, unlimited unemployment extensions). The notion of 'creating jobs' was never going to happen, and was never the goal.
2. His training - the people he's sat at the feet of while growing up. You could (certainly) argue that his are the actions of a puppet, perhaps, but he's implementing their tactics.
3. None of his Presidential actions are accidents - they are plans being enacted to specifically reward his supporters and perpetuate the Democrat party (Porkulus, other 'stimulus', class warefare, F&F?)
Now yeah, TOTUS is hardly a "Presidential-quality Communicator" -- he can't make real speeches, he rambles on presser answers because he's trying not to give any direct answers to questions -- but that doesn't mean there isn't an agenda or that he's marching to it.
I contrast Obama with Jimmy Carter because Carter had all the appearances of simply being overwhelmed by the job and not having a clue how to get out of it. Obama, however, is a true believer and believes his ways are right and true.
The error, however, is that I believe Obama over-reached and under-estimated the backlash. Having a GOP/Tea Party Congress has slowed his train, and he's still trying to figure how to cope with this.