Obama has been more or less the right-center President he was as a candidate. People who are surprised by this wishfully read too much into his rhetoric.

E.g. Obama has continued interventions in Pakistan, etc, even though some people pinned their hopes on him as an "anti-war" candidate. But he was never "anti-war." He was "anti-Iraq war." He ran on a platform of "Bush took us into Iraq instead of hitting the terrorists harder in Afghanistan." So why should anyone be surprised he took troops out of Iraq and put more in Afghanistan?

E.g. re: drone strikes, is it really any worse than the cruise missiles Clinton was fond of using?

"Civil liberties" in the abstract sense, are not a core issue to Obama's base in the same way that say abortion rights are. During Bush, Democrats opposed expansions such as military tribunals in Guantanamo, etc, but things like NSL's have been around since the 1970's. I don't think the bulk of Obama's base have a problem with the status quo circa 1995, or ever did, regardless of what adherent civil libertarians might have hoped.