It seems that the road most traveled in this country is the one that has the greatest ability to keep anyone from getting anything constructive done. The latest casualty is health care reform, which thanks to the health care industry, the ignorant people who make up the public, the Republican slander machine and a dimwitted hick from Alaska who thinks she's clever by popping out zingers against Obama, we will probably be stuck in a third world status for the majority of those same ignorant people who will still have no health care.

What I find most interesting is that the Democrats and particularly Obama have completely made the issue of health care reform into a firestorm by not taking effective, swift and non-partisan action to get the correct message out before the Republican's could fire up the ovens and start turning out angry 'country cupcakes' to attend townhall meetings. Why cupcakes you ask? Well, they are baked at a high temperature, they are full of things that are bad for you and it would seem that everyone loves to eat them up.

It doesn't matter if these folks live in a city or not, they are just as downright out of their senses and once that happens, no amount of reasoning will make them come back to whatever reality they existed in to begin with. This has always been the secret weapon of the Republicans and it has always been the Achilles heal of the Democrats.

The right wing elements of our media, press and corporate structure have no problem at all using the ignorant to act in a manner that goes against their own best interests. Just as the Pied Piper played his tune and caused all the children to follow him away, the Republicans do the same with the loud, obnoxious, uncouth, hostile, dangerous, and ill-informed amongst us and they too follow along in a trance, happily skipping their way to their own destruction.

So what's new about this happening within any governmental structure? Nothing at all. This was used by the Nazi's, the Communists, the Czars, the British, the Romans, the Sumerians, and it can probably be traced back to the original groups of humans as they struggled to determine who would be in charge of hunting down dinner that night.

I guess this is really where the heart of the matter is showing it's weak spot. What it looks like from here is that Obama, for all his educational pedigree, for all his smooth talking and intelligent sound bites in speeches and Op-Eds, has turned out to be as intelligent, or even perhaps a little less so, that George W. Bush.

Yes, that seems like it couldn't be possible. But, if you look at it objectively, it looks like Obama hasn't been able to bring one of his cornerstone policy initiatives to fruition for a couple of reasons that wouldn't have hampered GW:

1. Obama's insistence on a bi-partisan health care reform bill was the equivalent of waving the red flag in the bull ring for Republicans. When or where did GW ever say "if I could only get those pesky Democrats to get on board I could do big things here..."?

2. The White House staying out of the drafting of the health care bill said to the political machine that Obama wasn't really all that serious to begin with and since he left his project in the hands of the very people that don't have the political will to make something this easy happen, so they gummed it up to the point that even they are confused about what it says. GW would have slapped the health care bill with a 'Threat Level Red' and made anyone who appeared to be against it afraid of their own shadows if they voted no!

When GW wanted something passed like the Patriot Act, the enhanced Foreign Surveillance or the authorization to screw everyone, anywhere, anytime, Congress didn't go on a break first. The Republicans and the chickens in the Democrats voted for anything he wanted. If they argued about it at all, they would be virtually run out of town as anti-American and supporters of terrorists!

When Obama wants something he believes in, he doesn't come across as determined enough or sincere enough to make it happen. He doesn't seem willing to fight for what he thinks is right, even if what he wants is something morally and ethically sound, such as universal health care for all. All it takes is the slightest amount of pushback to get him to stop the car and apologize for having been so inconsiderate to not think about the feelings of the nutcases out there trying to derail something that they don't even understand enough to have an informed opinion on. I'm not suggesting that the President pitch a fit to get his way, but I am suggesting that he act with a more forceful stature and put some wind onto his tongue to rachet up the tone to a more determined sounding level.

When you consider how legally wrong others have been when fighting for their wish lists, you know, like his predecessor, who attacked another country for no good reason, imprisoned people without charge or possibility of release, tortured and killed people in the name of our security, etc. it would seem that what he wants shouldn't even break a sweat to make happen. You would think that anyway....

I was thinking that how's this for irony: if we look at Obama's performance to date, I would suggest that if he were the President in 1861, the South may have been able to secede successfully with his blessings. I am not sure he would he have committed the Northern States to fight the decision of the Southern States to leave the Union, one that they no longer felt served their common desires and goals. He would have tried his best oratory to convince them of their terrible decisons and hey, maybe he would tell them that we need to look forward not back, so whatever you did to your slaves was okay! After all, they were just property still. Maybe his enticement would have been to offer up a plan to pay off the debts of big plantations perhaps!

But fight for the Union to stay together? Wow, that sounds like it could have involved alot of arguing and stuff. That wasn't why I wanted to be President. If I have to make a stand, someone will say something mean...

The following items are policy issues and decisions where Obama has simply failed to follow through on his campaign positions or has chosen to just follow in the footsteps of Bush:

1. Iraq & Afghanistan-why are we still fighting a war that everyone, even the right wing nuts that helped start it, has said they should be wound down and ended. We are up to our eyeballs in debt and yet we are still spending hundreds of billions more on these disasters.

2. Gitmo and military prisons in Iraq/Afghanistan: How does a constitutional lawyer find the courage to look in the mirror knowing that he is allowing American soldiers, mercinaries and intelligence agencies to KIDNAP men and boys who will be held without charge, subjected to torture, rape, sexual abuse, assaulte and murder while in our custody. His promise to shut down Gitmo and other prisons we operate just like it has fallen flat on its face.

3. Immigration-what is the deal with making some kind of headway on this issue too? People are still being treated like cattle in the Southwest and West. Racial tensions against Hispanic Americans is at an all-time high because of dumb-asses like Glenn Beck and Fox. Where is Obama? He's punting to next year naturally.

4. Health Care Reform: This was the Grand PooBah of issues for Obama and he didn't seem like he could give a rat's anus about the development or debate on the issue until the flutes were shrieking so loudly from the Republican Pipers and their media counterparts that Obama had no choice but to make some sort of statement on the matter. But, as usual, his half-hearted explanation was too weak, leaving too many to believe once again that he isn't being forthright on the matter.

5. Prosecutions of War Criminals within the US: AG Eric Holder is appointing a Special Prosecutor to investigate possible violations of federal and international laws when it comes to the issue of torture, but the AG doesn't want the Prosecutor to actually arrest anyone unless they went seriously over the authorized tortures that the Justice Dept. memos from John Yu and Co. describe in 2002.

Pay no attention to the fact that an interdepartmental memo is not a newly written law that has passed the Congress and been signed by the President, so it should be cut and dry you would imagine. Anyone that participated in, decided upon or authorized the use of illegal techniques which are banned by international law and US law should be arrested and prosecuted, up to and including the President of the United States.

Obama's preachy message on this matter trying to tell everyone we need to look forward instead of back is ridiculous. With that argument, every defense attorney in the US should be able to prevent their client from going to jail for any and every offense they are charged with. In fact, there shouldn't be any arrests for any crimes at all as long as you committed that crime between 2001 and 2008, right Mr. President? What's the criteria for getting out of jail free-just claim that someone killed the immigrant family in Arizona because they needed the money for the MinuteMan program and all is forgiven right? They were only selling meth to keep paying for more fencing so that the terrorists who live next door can be kept at bay right? Forgive them too right?

6. The Bailouts of the Banks: While these bailouts were no doubt necessary, what is more irritating than their complicity in creating the financial crisis is their use of that bailout money to continue to enrich themselves and consolidate their positions within the financial industry by buying more banks.

What about the people all over America who were still losing their homes by the tens of thousands every month? What about the fact that the banks were using money that could have been used to help those folks so that they could pay out outrageous sums of money in bonuses and buyouts? Mr. Obama didn't seem to care as much about the fact that there was a way to make it possible to keep people in their homes while saving the vampires in the financial system as well, although it may still turn out to be the wrong decision, but only time will tell...

7. The War on Drugs: If there has ever been a bigger, more intense policy failure than this one, I don't know what it is. The USA has spent nearly $10 Trillion since this idea hit the law books courtesy of Richard Nixon. That's more than we have spent on all of our wars, including the current debacles combined. It's enough money to buy South America outright and Afghanistan too and destroy every drug producing crop in both locations.  But, that was never really what the 'war on drugs' was about. In the tapes made by Nixon, he discusses the reasons for the Controlled Substances Act-with particular emphasis on marijuana. Mr. Nixon was highly vexed at that time at the protestors who were giving him grief over Vietnam. To him, they were nothing but a bunch of pot-head hippies that he needed to sweep out of the way. However, Freedom of Speech was guaranteed (dammit), so he had to find another way to make the masses move. So, he insisted, against the advice of his medical panel, that marijuana be added to the top classification of dangerous drugs so that he could then use federal agencies, such as the newly formed DEA to arrest, harass and divide the protest movements.

Candidate Obama acknowledged that something had to change with this policy, however President Obama has made scoffing remarks about any real changes. He has failed to see the history of this picture as well. It was a policy set up not to save American's from drugs, but to save a Republican administration from protestors.  They needed a boogey man, and it was born out of a marijuana plant. Since then, America has become the country with the highest number of citizen's in jail, the country with the highest number of drug arrests, the highest costs for the prosecution of the war on drugs from its burden on governments from the local to the federal levels, yet Mr. Obama is cool with that.

After all, who wants to argue with the Prison Guard Union? Or discuss folding the DEA up into the FBI? Or take responsibility for the fact that the government has been caught multiple times selling drugs, importing drugs and distributing drugs so that the profits could be used for black ops or politically sensitive ops that Congress would balk at funding? Yep, these are the real reasons aren't they?

In conclusion, is Obama a socialist or a socialite? Is Obama a President in the mold of those who came before him? Well, perhaps Mr. Carter, who was also very book smart, but not too good at managing politics.  Some of my close friends have suggested that maybe I'm being too harsh on Mr. Obama, that he has a full plate and a large agenda to accomplish. Well, that may be true, but think of it this way: If Mr. Obama used the same kind of zealousness that GW used in 2002 to sell Iraq as the boogeyman, but instead used it to fix the problems noted above, then he might get my respect, and perhaps even my vote in 2012. I believe he and American's can fix anything, but we have to want to don't we?

I must suggest that Mr. Obama watch "The Simpson's Movie" which has a classic scene with President Schwarzenegger making a big decision. He gets five "unthinkable" program choices placed on his desk and told he has to pick one. The Prez immediately says "#3." The Secretary says "Aren't you going to read them first?" and the Prez says "I'm paid TO LEAD not to READ."

We were hoping that Obama could do both.