An excellent example of what happens when a world power adopts a weak defense policy is the United Kingdom in the 1930s when Hitler was rising to power. As Prime Minister of Great Britain, Chamberlain was so determined to keep England out of war with Germany that he adopted a policy of appeasement, negotiation and sanctions, not unlike the foreign policy which President Obama has adopted.

In his excellent book on Churchill William Manchester wrote, “The anesthetic effect of German promises to negotiate in these years was extraordinary. Hitler never negotiated. He lied, he bluffed, he blackmailed, but serious negotiation was a skill he despised, a refuge for weaklings.”

So it is today. Ahmadinejad, the President of Iran, despises Obama and the United States of America and has no intention of honorably negotiating with us. But Obama is a slow learner and keeps holding out “unclenched fists” to Ahmadinejad who, in turn, spits on them.

On Oct 3, 1938, Duff Cooper, a member of the British Parliament said of Chamberlain that, “Chamberlain believed in addressing Herr Hitler through the language of ‘sweet reasonableness.’ I have believed that he was more open to the language of the mailed fist … we have taken away the defenses of Czechoslovakia in the same breath as we have guaranteed them.”

That is what the United States has done. We have taken away the missile defenses of Poland, Ukraine and Eastern Europe and, at the same time, we have told them that they can count on America’s missile protection.

Both Chamberlain and Obama emphasize diplomacy over confrontation. As a result Chamberlain got WWII and Obama, most likely, will stumble into a Middle-East War. If Obama cannot contain Iran now while it’s non-nuclear, what chance does he have of containing Iran after it becomes a nuclear power?

The “gathering storm” of  WWII, as Churchill called it, “became apparent to British men in bars, women pushing baby carriages, shelf stackers in supermarkets, taxi drivers, businessmen, union shop stewards; to everyone, in short, (it became obvious) except to the oligarchy in power.”

That very same saga is being repeated today in our country, mechanics, fire fighters, hair dressers, clerks, airline pilots, Tea Party members (I Prefer to call them “TEA SIPPERS”) and many other good, solid Americans are telling Obama’s Government that enough is enough and  it’s time to “Wake up and smell the coffee!” But the Obama Administration, in its shabby first year, has been oblivious to the will of the American people.

Much to Obama’s chagrin, America is still the greatest nation on the face of the earth. Without its leadership, the free world and western civilization – as we know it today -- will collapse. For if the US doesn’t lead the free world, who will: Russia, China, Hugo Chavez?

This brings us full circle as to why the United States of America, the world’s only super power, must maintain its military prowess.  It is because, as history has rudely taught us, peace can only be secured and maintained through strength. Ironically, the greatest contributor to peace is a war-ready military.

Between 40 and 50 thousand people are killed in crashes on the nation’s roads and highways each year. The number of deaths caused by the Toyota “sticking accelerator” problem is set at close to 3.5 deaths a year.  Three and a half deaths per year is cause for concern, but it is not a crisis.

Each year more children are run over and killed by school busses at school bus stops than are killed by Toyota’s safety defect problem. The point is we need to keep our eyes on what’s important and not get diverted down a rabbit trail to nowhere. The focus should be on identifying and fixing existing safety defects, not on having dueling press conferences and Capitol Hill Theatric productions.

The National Safety Law of 1966 charges the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to “protect the American public against unreasonable risk of accidents occurring as a result of the design, construction or performance of motor vehicles and to protect (the public) against unreasonable risk of death or injury to persons in the event accidents do occur, to provide a minimum standard for motor vehicle performance or motor vehicle equipment performance, which is practicable, which meets the need for motor vehicle safety and which provides objective (decision making) criteria.”

NHTSA’s only reason to exist is to save lives on the nation’s roads and highways and to protect the American public by identifying and correcting motor vehicle safety defects – including Toyota’s sticking accelerators and sudden and uncontrolled acceleration problems. 

It does this by “compiling and analyzing safety statistics and information; and by conducting supportive safety research and development.” It is NHTSA’s job to monitor accident trends, to identify safety defects and to require the manufacturer to recall defective vehicles and correct their faults at no cost to the customer. The manufacturer’s job is to correct the defects when and how NHTSA tells them to; NHTSA, not the manufacturer, is responsible for identifying safety defects.

The way the defect system worked when I was NHTSA Administrator was that anytime a manufacture suspected or had proof that a safety defect had developed -- within five working days -- he must notify NHTSA. In cooperation with the manufacturer NHTSA determined whether or not a real safety defect existed. If one did exist the manufacturer and NHTSA followed an established protocol. First they jointly clarified the problem, designed a program to fix the defect and they were instructed and order the repair parts. Then, the vehicle owners were notified that a safety defect existed and they were instructed to bring their vehicles into a dealership to be fixed.

Ideally NHTSA discovers that a safety defect exists about the same time as the manufacturer. NHTSA receives hundreds of thousands of customer complaints each month over its Traffic Safety Telephone Hotline. If there is a serious safety defect, NHTSA quickly identifies it and starts looking for safety trends.

Every time there is a nonfatal crash the state where the crash occurred notifies NHTSA.  This may take several weeks.  When there is a crash resulting in a fatality, State Police immediately notify NHTSA who immediately starts evaluating the accident for any indications of a safety trend. Additionally NHTSA has other sources of information such as insurance companies and their claims adjustors.

Right now our nation doesn’t need a publicity war with Japan, nor do we want to see Toyota’s assembly plants in the US falling silent and their workers unemployed.  In the past NHTSA and the motor vehicle manufacturers have cooperated in fixing safety defects without resorting to making it a publicity crisis or circus. That’s what needs to be done with the current problem.

This is not the great crisis it has been portrayed to be and it is neither the first nor the last time that a manufacturer will fail to promptly notify NHTSA of the discovery of a safety defect. The problem needs to be handled firmly, but also with calm assurance that working together the manufacturer and the government will do what’s right to protect the American public.

For months the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), which is part of the Department of Transportation, had been receiving complaints from customers and police agencies across the nation about “sticking accelerators” on Toyota Motor Vehicles. They routinely processed these complaints and asked Toyota to investigate and report back on the alleged problems. Indications are that Toyota was less than responsive.

Finally in November of last year, NHTSA approached Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood and requested permission for some of its staff to fly to Japan to meet with Toyota executives; permission was granted. The purpose of the trip was to determine whether or not there was really a sticking accelerator problem and, if there was, to find out when Toyota intended to recall its automobiles and fix them?

In the history of the agency I know of no other time when federal regulators went “hat in hand” to an auto manufacturer, at home or abroad, and begged them to make a safety recall of  a defective motor vehicle system. During the three years when I was the Administrator of NHTSA it was not unusual to recall nearly a million vehicles a month for repair of safety defects, and not once did a member of my staff have to travel to Japan or Europe to do it. Not once did we refuse to conduct a safety investigation because of the, “need to allocate and prioritize NHTSA’s limited resources to best accomplish the agency’s safety mission.” In fact, I would have fired any member of my staff who came up with such a dumb idea.

The NATIONAL TRAFFIC AND MOTOR VEHICLE SAFETY ACT OF 1966 charges NHTSA with the responsibility to “protect the American public against unreasonable risk of accidents occurring as a result of the design, construction or performance of motor vehicles and is to also protect against unreasonable risk of death or injury to persons in the event accidents do occur … a minimum standard for motor vehicle performance, or motor vehicle equipment performance, which is practicable, which meets the need for motor vehicle safety and which provides objective criteria” to measure against.

It is NHTSA’s job to protect the public by setting standards and identifying and correcting motor vehicle safety defects -- including sticking accelerators and sudden and uncontrolled acceleration... It does this by defect identification and correction; by “compiling and analyzing safety statistics and information; and by conducting supportive safety research and development.” If a safety defect exists NHTSA identifies it and requires that the manufacturer recalls the defective vehicles and corrects their faults at no cost to the customer.

Identifying and correcting mechanical and technical safety defects is something the military trained me to do. At one time I commanded the U.S. Army’s Test and Evaluation Command headquartered at Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland. The command was responsible for the “Engineer Development Testing” of all military equipment including – but not limited to -- aircraft, helicopters, jeeps, tanks, trucks, missiles, artillery and munitions.

When I was leading NHTSA, we assumed that some auto manufacturers would do all they could to stiff arm us and not cooperate, but we didn’t care. Our job was to protect the public and we had all the tools -- or weapons -- we needed to get the job done. We could assess substantial fines, subpoena correspondence and records, loose the news media on the manufacturers for their lack of cooperation and, if need be, have the Department of Justice drag the recalcitrant manufacturer into court. On the average NHTSA opened between 100 and 125 defect investigations a year.

Even back then Toyota was a very large and competently run company; but at times it could be difficult to work with. It had a reputation of not notifying the agency of its discovery of safety defects as required by the Safety Act and of not providing completely factual answers concerning the issues raised by our letters and Special Orders. But this was only an irritant, not a failure of the system. I made it clear to Toyota that I was not above knee-capping them and they wisely decided to fully cooperate.

During his recent State of the Union address, President Barack Obama told the nation that he wanted America’s armed forces to abolish the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy which forbids gays and lesbians to openly practice homosexual lifestyles while on active military duty. This was a blatant attempt on Obama’s part to pay off his campaign debt to the homosexual community for having helped him get elected to the presidency last year.

A week later Admiral Mike Mullen, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates dutifully traipsed over to Capitol Hill to sing to the Senate a chorus from the Obama party line that the homosexual life style was perfectly acceptable and that adopting it as national policy would in no way undermine the morale and discipline of the U.S. military.

The purpose of America’s armed forces should be to win wars, not engage in social experiments. Troops I’ve talked to believe that open homosexual living is incompatible with military service and will undermine unit cohesion and ultimately marginalize the military effectiveness of our armed forces in battle. Should the troops refuse to volunteer for further military duty because Obama’s policy has been adopted, the President and the Joint Chiefs will have lost the loyalty, trust and respect of the military forces that have been entrusted to their command.

The military is about national defense and winning wars, it is not about cultural change. Furthermore, serving in the military is not a constitutional right and neither is being able to openly parade one’s homosexual lifestyle. Under today’s policy of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” any gay or lesbian can serve in the military; they just can’t flaunt their lifestyle. And there is no equivalence between the military’s restricting homosexual conduct and racial discrimination.

I agree with my old colleague Colin Powell who wrote Congresswoman Pat Schroeder that, “Skin color is a benign non-behavioral characteristic. Sexual orientation is perhaps the most profound of human behavioral characteristics. Comparison of the two is a convenient but invalid argument.” It’s easy to recommend sweeping social changes to barracks living when you don’t have to live in those barracks yourself.

Mullen says he favors open homosexuality in the military services although he has no idea how the rank and file will react to such a policy. He says that “I fully support the President’s decision.” That is, first you make the decision and then later on you investigate how it will affect those who have to live with and carry it out. It’s like listening in on an “Alice in Wonderland” conversation, “Let’s have the verdict first and the trial second.” Gates and Mullen are effectively saying that after the policy is changed, they will then worry about how the change will affect reenlistments and performance of the nation’s all volunteer force.

Gates has commissioned an eleven month “outside study” by the Rand Corporation of
Obama’s proposal and a similar “in-service” review headed up by an Army four-Star and by the Pentagon’s chief lawyer. Having a lawyer co-lead the study is probably meant to ensure that Gates, Mullen and Obama’s backs are covered. But the three of them would do much better if they dropped the lawyer and replaced him with one of the uniformed service’s enlisted Sergeant Majors.

Additionally Gates – without inquiry – wants to reduce the number of homosexuals released from the military each year under the policy of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” But he has yet to answer the key question, “What effect will this reduction have on readiness, morale, and military unit effectiveness?”

The nation’s military should be focused on defending America and winning its wars. It
shouldn’t be used to pay back Obama’s campaign debts or just to effect social change.

The movie opens with a gorgeous panoramic view of the western plains. In the foreground is a wagon train of settlers migrating west. In the middle distance is a lone rider furiously galloping toward the wagon train, shouting and waving.

Pulling up alongside the wagon master his horse’s hoofs kicking up clouds of dust, the rider points and shouts, “There are hostile Indians just over the ridge.” The wagon master warns, “Be careful how you talk when they get here, we don’t want to offend them.”  The scene closes with the wagon master asking with his last breath just as one of my Native American ancestors drills him right between the eyes with a tomahawk, “We didn’t offend them … did we?”

The U.S. military’s report on the Fort Hood killings has been released and nowhere in 86 pages is there a mention that Major Hasan is a Muslim. This is particularly chilling because it was adherence to the Muslim faith, as he interpreted it, that caused him to go on this killing spree.

For the past twenty-five years equal opportunity Muslim terrorists have wantonly attacked and killed American military and civilians around the world without regard to sex, age or occupation. There were many signs that pointed to Hasan’s being a potential terrorist killer, for those willing to see them. He was known to speak out against the U.S. military’s fighting in Muslim countries, to show sympathy toward Muslim terrorists and to pass out business cards that declared him to be a “Soldier of Allah.” 

Yet none of this is mentioned in the military report for fear that some Muslim or Muslim organization might take offense. Hasan is the invisible elephant in the tent who gets a free pass. Those who chose to ignore the signs of his Muslim radicalism are as guilty and complicit as he in the killings.

Protecting American lives and interests is what the Department of Defense was created to do. But evidently it’s forgotten how to discharge those duties. Too many of our current military leaders are like the wagon master, who cannot identify an enemy when they see one and, if they do, refuse to come to grips with the reality.

It is like the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) which is responsible for safeguarding our airports, airliners and air transportation systems. At the airport security portal, the TSA searches and pats down 80-year-old grandmothers from Omaha, yet hesitates to segregate and question 25 year old Muslims. The truth is that it is radical young Muslims who wantonly kill our citizens; grandmothers from Omaha do not. The TSA is afraid to take the proper actions necessary to safeguard American lives for fear they might be accused of racial profiling, or they might offend Muslims in the United States.

Vague accusations of racial profiling are a holdover from the pre-civil rights days when blacks were segregated and treated as sub-human beings. I’m old enough to have lived through the racial profiling period of American history. It was humiliating, mean and ugly, but black people like me didn’t crash airliners into World Trade Centers.

Recently I was involved in an intense conversation where the other party verbally assaulted me with what he supposed was a conversation stopper. “What you just said deeply offended me!” he snarled.  “Then be offended,” I shot back.

There is a time to be politically correct and a time to kick butt and take names. You shouldn’t be a supervisor in the TSA if you can’t figure out the difference between the two. That is, if you’re confused about which is which, you shouldn’t be assigned to protect the lives of Americans passing through our airports and flying on our airliners.

TSA should zero in like a laser beam on anyone coming through an airport security station that looks like, or the inspectors have reason to believe might be a radical Muslim terrorist. Such people should get the full “terrorist search” treatment; while the grandmother from Omaha should get a pass. As my steel worker father liked to say, “It’s hard, but it’s fair.”

A few times each century  “The Awesome Hand of God” sweeps down from heaven and  punches the world’s “reset” button bringing mankind up short by defining things with a ringing purpose and clarity. Not in the sense of God actually materializing and throwing bolts of lightning at us, but in the letters and documents passed on to us by our Founding Fathers that make it clear that most of our founders believed that events on earth were controlled by a divine providence that was more powerful than man himself.

Perhaps that is why Thomas Jefferson wrote so boldly in the Declaration of Independence that, “We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their creator … with a firm reliance on the protection of divine providence … I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just.” In Haiti last week in the twinkling of an eye, God showed that, as our founders suggested, we are not in control and feeble man is still scrabbling about on earth reacting to unforeseen events and trying to pick up the pieces.

Thousands of years ago King David the great Psalmist wrote, “When I look at the night sky and see the work of your fingers – the moon and the stars you have set in place – what are mortals that you … should care for us.” Until this week our government in Washington was dramatically proclaiming that health care was a great crisis and that if a solution to it was not found immediately the nation and its economy would be seriously damaged.

But God in heaven, with the tapping of a single finger, put health care back into its proper perspective for us. In effect God said, “Health care in the United States is not a major crisis. Health care on the Island of Haiti is a major crisis.” It is most unfortunate that it requires a catastrophe of world wide proportions to sort out our thinking and to put mankind back into his proper place and to remind us of how meager our ability really is to influence God’s universe.

Just as epic world events redirect our attention, so too can the hollowness of a Senator’s character and whether his or her vote can be bought for a hundred (or three hundred million dollars). How have we arrived at the point where our legislators’ character is publicly impaled on a big “For Sale” sign? It was not always so on Capital Hill.

In 1833 Congressman Davy Crockett faced a vote as divisive as today’s health care vote. He summed up his dilemma in these words, “It was expected of me that I was to bow to the name of Andrew Jackson, and follow him in all of his motions, and standings, and turnings, even at the expense of my conscience and judgment …. His famous, or rather I should say his in-famous, Indian bill was brought forward, and I opposed it from the purest of motives in the world. Several of my colleagues got around me, and told me how well they loved me, and that I was ruining my self. They said this was a favorite measure of the president, and I ought to go for it. I told them I believed it was a wicked, unjust measure, and that I should go against it, let the cost to myself be what it might.”

All Congressmen and Senators would do well to examine the current health care bill that Congress is gorging and gagging on, in light of Crockett’s example and that of our Founding Fathers. It would be a noble and trustworthy act should our political leaders declare that, “I believed it was a wicked, unjust measure, and that I should go against it, let the cost to myself be what it might.”

Unfortunately, too few of our political leaders today march to Crockett’s lonely drum beat. Too many of them would rather clasp to their bosoms the words of Niccolo Machiavelli, “[He] did nothing but deceive and never thought of anything else and always found some occasion for it. Never was there a man more convincing in his asseverations nor more willing to offer the most solemn oaths nor less likely to observe them. Yet his deceptions were always successful for he was an expert in this field.”

Too many of our law makers subscribe to the philosophy of Groucho Marx, “These are my principles, and if you don’t like them … well, I have others.” Groucho may have had a haystack full of examples ready to be selected from at random to fit any situation, but we should know better -- especially our Congressional leaders should know better. But no matter what, God is still keeper of the “reset” button.

Over the past year President Obama’s amateurish dithering, his misuse of national intelligence resources, and his lack of leadership ability and experience has significantly weakened America’s national security at every level. All of the effort he’s spent trying to close Guantanamo would have been much better spent stabilizing the country of Yemen and limiting further al-Qaeda penetrations and operations there.

Instead of preventing terrorist attacks here in the USA Eric Holder, Obama’s attorney general, has been at work 24/7 attempting to find prosecutorial grounds under which to punish intelligence operatives of former administrations. If you work in the FBI, CIA, or other intelligence agencies you had better duck for cover because Obama’s counter terrorism and intelligence officials are spending more time trying to catch your failures than tracking down Muslim terrorist sleeper cells operating within our nation’s borders.

By extending our citizens’ constitutional rights to terrorists, Obama has significantly curtailed the nation’s ability to extract vital intelligence information from senior al-Qaeda members and other terrorist leaders. He has stopped fruitful, aggressive interrogation programs and given away the secrets of our nation’s interrogation methods to our  enemies.

Obama’s witch-hunting has alienated the Defense Department, CIA, FBI, and other intelligence communities and has made them skeptical of his motives. Today you would have to be a fool to risk your career and life in the service of your country trying to develop or follow up on desperately needed intelligence leads and information. You can be certain that if things turn out less than perfect, the President and his attorney general will be gleefully lurking around the corner ready to spring forth to entrap and prosecute you.

After the attacks of 9/11, the U.S. National Counter Terrorism Center (NCTC) was set up as a clearinghouse for raw intelligence information. Obama blames the Center and the CIA for not preventing the Christmas Day underwear bomber from getting on the Northwest Airliner headed for Detroit, saying that he will not tolerate such “systemic failures”. What Obama fails to mention is that his administration had planned deep budget cuts for the NCTC prior to the underwear bomber’s flight. Perhaps now the NCTC budget will not only be restored, but increased.

The president fails to understand that these were not just run of the mill “systemic failures.” These were human errors -- failures in leadership – all up and down the chain of command. These failures have not been corrected because there is little accountability in the Obama administration. It treats intelligence failures as cavalierly as it treats job creation.

Dennis Blair, Director of National Intelligence, issued a 7 January memo addressing the underwear bomber situation in which he spoke of the flight as Northwest Flight 153. It was actually flight 253. If you can’t even get three numbers correct, what can you get right? Apparently not much.

Our constitution forces us to place our national security in the hands of the President and his administration. Unfortunately, it appears that our confidence is sorely misplaced and we are sadly being deceived. It is a poignant indicator that the only thing that kept our nation from a disaster on Christmas Day was a handful of brave and alert passengers and an incompetent terrorist who couldn’t detonate his bomb.
 
Putting the wrong flight number in an intelligence memo is not just a minor oversight. It’s an indication that the Obama Administration’s benign intelligence apparatus and efforts cannot be taken seriously by either the American people or by Muslim terrorists.  My experience with the intelligence community taught me that what some might call an insignificant mistake, could very well prove to be the difference between life and death. Due to a similar “insignificant mistake” – a simple typo – the underwear bomber was mistakenly granted a visa by our State Department and allowed to board the plane.

These so-called little mistakes are not only dangerous and life threatening, they are pathetic and disappointing. Everyone knows, especially the U.S. State Department, that an obvious “red flag” is a passenger who buys a one-way ticket, pays cash for it, and has no passport and baggage. The underwear bomber’s identification as a possible terrorist, and his neutralization, should have taken place long before he got in that line to buy a plane ticket.

Another case in point is the three gate crashers at the White House dinner for Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. These three weren’t on the White House social or the Secret Service’s guest lists, but because of another “insignificant mistake” they were able to walk past security and casually sidle up to the President, even have their pictures taken with him. If al-Qaeda knew how easy it was to get to stand next to the President, they could have probably taken him out at one of the Presidential Inaugural parties.

But no, that’s too hasty a conclusion. President Bush was responsible for security at the Obama inauguration parties. So the three gate crashers wouldn’t have been able to get through without being on the guest list.

Leaders in the military are taught to quickly identify, isolate and focus on the most important things in a war to the exclusion of lesser things. That is because to be successful, the focus of a military leader’s efforts has to be on winning the war, not on winning individual battles, no matter how tempting. President Obama has yet to learn that
lesson, and therefore has yet to learn how to lead.

He has evaluated the nation’s current situation and properly concluded that there are three very important issues which require the nation’s attention. Unfortunately, he has been unable to figure out that all three are not of equal significance. Therefore, he has failed to determine which is the most important.

If Obama loses the battle of “Healthcare,” he can still win the war. If he loses the battle of “Global Warming” he can still win the war. But if he loses the battle of restoring the economy and “Creating Jobs,” he will lose the war. That is why at twelve noon on January 20th, 2009, Obama’s focus and the focus of everyone in his Administration should have converged with laser beam intensity on the task of creating jobs.

The urgency of the hour called for Obama to set aside all other agenda items and to focus on restoring the economy, on creating jobs – real jobs – and more jobs. He could not afford then, nor can he afford now, to allow those on Capital Hill to dilute and divert the Administration’s and the nation’s energies and focus. Our nation can not afford to be distracted by the pursuit of Healthcare and Global Warming -- as important as these two issues might be.

All presidential speeches, actions and programs from the hour of Obama’s inauguration until the present time, should have focused on growing the economy and creating jobs. Somewhere, tucked into every speech given by the President and by every member of the Administration, should have been a mention of the need to create jobs. Every subject debated on Capital Hill should have included practical, workable and immediate courses of productive action that would impact the economy and job growth.

When I was growing up my mother taught me that if an individual, a family, or a government spends more money than it has in its accounts, it will be forced to borrow to make up for the short fall and the money it borrows will have to be paid back with interest. She said that if the government couldn’t pay back its loans on time, it would be forced to borrow more money or go into default.

She said that is why it was prudent to keep the federal budget balanced and that all of us at every level should work as hard as we can to individually get out and stay out of debt. Events such as the sub-prime lending and housing construction fiascos are warnings that the federal government has allowed our national accounts to get out of control. We have forgotten that eternal financial vigilance should be a top national priority and that continued abuse of our economic system is suicidal.

It almost seems like Cicero had the Obama Administration in mind when he wrote in 55 BC that, “The budget should be balanced, the Treasury should be refilled, public debt should be reduced, the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, and assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed lest Rome [The United States]  become bankrupt. People must again learn to work, instead of living on public assistance.”

Two years ago if you had asked any American of any political stripe, from the President of the United States, to a junior member of Congress, to the wizened old bureaucrat, to the vice president of a venerated Wall Street firm, to the president of a local bank in the mid-west, to a grievance committeeman in a labor union, what was the number one problem facing the nation, the answer would have been a loud, resounding, “Creating Jobs!” The same is true today.

As President, Obama’s primary goal should be to lead the nation out of its current economic crisis into the sunlight of financial solvency, but he lacks a sense of urgency. He seems deaf to the cries of citizens, like the “Tea Baggers,” who try to get him to focus on fixing the nation’s economy.

If all the effort and time that have been spent on the healthcare debate and formulation of healthcare legislation had been spent creating jobs, the nation would be well on the way toward solving its financial crisis. To the severe detriment of our nation, Obama the leader has focused his primary attention on a secondary issue – healthcare. 

The motto of the U.S. Army’s Infantry School at Fort Benning, Georgia, which I attended, is “Follow Me!”  At Benning infantry officers are quickly taught that pointing or suggesting is not the same thing as leading. “In war when men die, and in war some must, you can’t manage them to their death. You must lead them there.” Leadership is making right decisions and personally getting out in front when the bullets begin to fly. It is beckoning for others to leave comfort and safety and to join you in the fight.

Isn’t it time for Obama to focus the nation and the government on what is really of vital importance? Isn’t it time to stop the blame game, to stop assigning fault to others for the problems Obama and his Administration have failed to solve? Whether he likes it or not, the President of the United States is responsible for everything that happens during his administration good or bad, right or wrong --even those things held over from previous administrations. Obama was elected to lead the nation and to solve national problems, to evaluate and establish priorities, not to dodge and weave, assign blame, preen and avoid responsibility.

Mr. President, if you have any leadership ability within you -- and I pray that you have --now is the time to demonstrate it.

“‘Trust me’ government asks that we concentrate our hopes and dreams on one man, that we trust him to do what’s best for us. But my view of government places trust not in one person or one party, but in those values that transcend persons and parties. The trust is where it belongs – in the people. The responsibility to live up to that trust is where it belongs, in their elected leaders.” This is a quote from a speech given by Ronald Reagan at the Republican National Convention July 17, 1980.

He could just as well have been speaking of President Obama and his Administration rather than President Carter. Obama’s presidential campaign was built on “trust me,” you all need “change,” and I will bring change to you, the nation and the world. No one at the national level in either political party really questioned him hard by asking such things as, “Change from what to what?”

Instead the voters and political leaders, especially among the Democrats, drooled all over themselves, bowed and chanted, “We trust you. You are our Messiah and we know deep down inside that you will bring us the change we need.” The American public, who should have known better, was either inordinately gullible, masterfully deceived or just plain stupid. And today we are all paying for that naiveté.

Similarly, Obama has continued to charm and dupe the news media, most recently with his verbose speech in Washington on the economy and his siren call Nobel laureate speech in Oslo. Even some of the politically moderate -- including a few Republicans -- have become his lap dogs shivering all over themselves while he rubs their bellies. They sidle up to him, lick his hands and declare what a great speech he has just given. It doesn’t seem to bother them that Obama’s speeches are merely empty rhetoric and that the world’s leaders view him, at best, as unsophisticated and inexperienced and, at worst, as dangerously naïve.

Superficially grafted into his Nobel speech were many of the words and phrases both his critics and opponents have been panting to hear tumble from his lips: he said that war is bad but sometimes necessary; that America has been good for the world and hinted half heartedly that he might even be proud to be an American; he spoke of the Afghanistan military engagement as being a “just war;” and concluded that violence never brings peace. (Perhaps he’s forgotten that the west’s winning WWII brought peace through the creation of a kinder and gentler Japan and Germany). One thing he inarguably got right, though: he acknowledged that evil does exist and that sometimes it must be confronted – hooray!

His speeches -- and these two were no exception – are filled with empty oratory. Perhaps it is because they come from the belly of a teleprompter rather than bubbling up from a clear moral center. His words, though eloquent, are at the same time abysmally empty in content. Though slick on the surface they lack depth and the ring of truth. There seems to be a broadening gap between his words and deeds, appearance and reality, public goals and private intentions.

To paraphrase President Reagan, can anyone look at the record of the Obama Administration this first year and say, “Well done”? Can anyone compare the state of our economy when Obama took office with where we are today and say, “Keep up the good work”? Can anyone look at our reduced standing in the world today and say, “Let’s have three more years of this”?

Using Reagan’s words as a guide, the American people are starting to answer these questions for themselves. That’s why we have seen so many spontaneous events like the “Tea Parties.” America’s citizens are clearly saying, “We’ve had enough. It is time the federal government went on a diet, a diet consisting of lower taxes and less, not more government and government control. It is time for the government to start living within its means, not continually spending over its debt limit and then printing more money and increasing the debt limit authorization to cover its binge spending.”

It is time for the White House and Capital Hill to stop dictating to America’s citizens and instead turn loose our people’s creative powers and ideas. It is time for the government to place its confidence in the dedicated and hard working private sector which can create and solve the nation’s economic problems today just as it did in the early 1980s. To create jobs, the private sector must have money to invest and faith that their money will be successfully invested and grown.

In short, it is time for the government to replace and restore its trust and confidence in the American people and the private sector. The White House and Capital Hill need to stop trying to sell the American people a bill of goods that they obviously are no longer willing to buy.

“‘Trust me’ government asks that we concentrate our hopes and dreams on one man, that we trust him to do what’s best for us. But my view of government places trust not in one person or one party, but in those values that transcend persons and parties. The trust is where it belongs – in the people. The responsibility to live up to that trust is where it belongs, in their elected leaders.” This is a quote from a speech given by Ronald Reagan at the Republican National Convention July 17, 1980.

He could just as well have been speaking of President Obama and his Administration rather than President Carter. Obama’s presidential campaign was built on “trust me,” you all need “change,” and I will bring change to you, the nation and the world. No one at the national level in either political party really questioned him hard by asking such things as, “Change from what to what?”

Instead the voters and political leaders, especially among the Democrats, drooled all over themselves, bowed and chanted, “We trust you. You are our Messiah and we know deep down inside that you will bring us the change we need.” The American public, who should have known better, was either inordinately gullible, masterfully deceived or just plain stupid. And today we are all paying for that naiveté.

Similarly, Obama has continued to charm and dupe the news media, most recently with his verbose speech in Washington on the economy and his siren call Nobel laureate speech in Oslo. Even some of the politically moderate -- including a few Republicans -- have become his lap dogs shivering all over themselves while he rubs their bellies. They sidle up to him, lick his hands and declare what a great speech he has just given. It doesn’t seem to bother them that Obama’s speeches are merely empty rhetoric and that the world’s leaders view him, at best, as unsophisticated and inexperienced and, at worst, as dangerously naïve.

Superficially grafted into his Nobel speech were many of the words and phrases both his critics and opponents have been panting to hear tumble from his lips: he said that war is bad but sometimes necessary; that America has been good for the world and hinted half heartedly that he might even be proud to be an American; he spoke of the Afghanistan military engagement as being a “just war;” and concluded that violence never brings peace. (Perhaps he’s forgotten that the west’s winning WWII brought peace through the creation of a kinder and gentler Japan and Germany). One thing he inarguably got right, though: he acknowledged that evil does exist and that sometimes it must be confronted – hooray!

His speeches -- and these two were no exception – are filled with empty oratory. Perhaps it is because they come from the belly of a teleprompter rather than bubbling up from a clear moral center. His words, though eloquent, are at the same time abysmally empty in content. Though slick on the surface they lack depth and the ring of truth. There seems to be a broadening gap between his words and deeds, appearance and reality, public goals and private intentions.

To paraphrase President Reagan, can anyone look at the record of the Obama Administration this first year and say, “Well done”? Can anyone compare the state of our economy when Obama took office with where we are today and say, “Keep up the good work”? Can anyone look at our reduced standing in the world today and say, “Let’s have three more years of this”?

Using Reagan’s words as a guide, the American people are starting to answer these questions for themselves. That’s why we have seen so many spontaneous events like the “Tea Parties.” America’s citizens are clearly saying, “We’ve had enough. It is time the federal government went on a diet, a diet consisting of lower taxes and less, not more government and government control. It is time for the government to start living within its means, not continually spending over its debt limit and then printing more money and increasing the debt limit authorization to cover its binge spending.”

It is time for the White House and Capital Hill to stop dictating to America’s citizens and instead turn loose our people’s creative powers and ideas. It is time for the government to place its confidence in the dedicated and hard working private sector which can create and solve the nation’s economic problems today just as it did in the early 1980s. To create jobs, the private sector must have money to invest and faith that their money will be successfully invested and grown.

In short, it is time for the government to replace and restore its trust and confidence in the American people and the private sector. The White House and Capital Hill need to stop trying to sell the American people a bill of goods that they obviously are no longer willing to buy.