One of President Obama's most depressing failures is the way he has dealt with Wall Street.

When Obama came to office in January 2009, he had the opportunity to radically change the Wall Street status quo:

reversing the "bailout doctrine" of the Bush administration,

seizing and restructuring zombie banks like Citi and Bank of America,

increasing capital requirements, and

reinstating the Glass Steagall separation of commercial and investment banking so the 2008-2009 financial crisis could never happen again.

But, instead, President Obama hired the same ex-Wall Street team that had implemented Bush's Bailout Doctrine, most notably Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner.

Under the logic of "we simply don't have a choice," Geithner then proceeded to alienate most of mainstream America by arguing that the Wall Street status quo had to be preserved or society would collapse.

Meanwhile, stung by criticism that he was being too soft on the banks, Obama then compounded the mistake by portraying bankers as greedy "fat cats"—thus alienating Wall Street, too.

God's gift to Wall Street. And so, three years later, we're left with the same unrestructured zombie banks, the same Too Big To Fail policies (unofficial, of course), the same ongoing bailouts, the same popular hatred of Wall Street—which appears, to mainstream America, to have escaped the crisis unscathed—and the same "talk tough but do nothing" approach that makes both Wall Street and Main Street seethe about the Obama Administration's approach to the banks.

Earlier this week, for example, Obama pandered to Main Street by blasting Bank of America for its debit-card fee, while saying nothing about the ongoing Bush-era bailout policies that continue to reward banks just for being banks (The Federal Reserve continues to pay BOFA and other banks "interest on excess reserves," for example, and helps them replenish their balance sheets by perpetuating zero percent interest rates.) And yesterday Tim Geithner told Erin Burnett that the Administration will "prevail" over Wall Street on the Dodd Frank regulation...even as bank stocks hit new lows, Geithner begs Europe to clone the US bailout, and the talk begins again about the need for another round of US bailouts.

Of course, aggressively addressing capital requirements and restructuring zombie banks three years ago would have turned Wall Street against Obama—but Wall Street's now against Obama anyway. Meanwhile, blaming Wall Street for its contribution to the country's problems—and actually backing up the talk with action—would have won over the rest of the business community and Main Street.

Instead, Obama has infuriated both sides for his ineffectiveness on this issue—and Wall Street remains unchanged.

SEE ALSO: The Wall Street Protests: What They're Really Like