Whether one likes Obama or not - I guess in Germany we like him fine, since here he would tend to be about middle-right wing with most of his program, so he is not at all very left wing (from a German perspective) - I doubt anyone can do better in the USA at the moment.
One true problem about US politics is in my opinion usually only rich people have a chance. In both parties. Obama seems to be an exception, but everyone else seems to come from a rather rich background.
But I guess it would be worth it to have Tea Party govern for two years. I bet they would drive the country into even deeper ruin.
It is about the same with the German "Linke" (Left Socialist Party, so left that in America they would be gunned down as communists). They get rather big support currently too, they promise a lot of things (I liked their last campaign: "Charge wealth with a tax" and a few meters further the next slogan: "Wealth for everyone" ... really intelligent), but all they would do is either realise they can't do any better OR they'd make it a lot worse because they fellow an ideology, not reality.
We have to accept the world is always changing. USA and I guess Europe currently have a bit of a down, but we will rise again, like it always has been in history.