I have not spoken to him directly. Here’s the reason. Because my experience is, when you talk to a guy like a BP CEO, he’s gonna say all the right things to me. I’m not interested in words. I’m interested in actions. — 2010

My Take – President Obama speaks of what he knows – words.  He’s spent his entire adult life mouthing what his audience and speechwriters want him to say.  He knows that if he was ever to be challenged to put some actual skin in the game, to work a real job that turned out real product, he’d be a rank amateur and would have to struggle to stay employed.  So he’s found a way to look good, sound good, and make people feel good.

The problem is that eventually the real world intrudes upon the utopia of rhetoric.  Eventually, the lofty speeches and promises aren’t enough.  Some day, sooner or later, you have to step down from your throne and get dirty in the trenches with the rest of us.  President Obama has been campaigning for well over a decade, and when he finally won the big one and landed his first job where people expected him to do more than show up and plan for his next election, he failed.  Reports that he is disinterested in the details of government, of how he’s impatient with the process of working with others to get things done, and his lecturing to Congress and anyone else who tries to have a voice about how the election is over and he won are, to me, indications that he hasn’t a clue about how to do the job he worked so hard to get.

We need actions, even if the action is to look at a problem and say “This is not the government’s business”.  The time for pretty words is over.  Now is the time for doing, not talking.  It’s time for the President to either put up, or shut up.  If he wants to keep talking, then he needs to start talking – clearly, concisely, and without a teleprompter – about exactly why he should be given another four years to do the things he should have been doing in his first four years.  If he can’t do that, he needs to leave.

Our first and immutable commitment must be to the security of Israel, our only true ally in the Middle East and the only democracy, — 2004

My Take – I have to agree, even if I believe that the President wasn’t exactly speaking from the heart on this one.

Israel is the only country in the Middle East that is even approaching what we call a liberal, western-style democracy.  Yes, they have their issues, and I don’t always agree with them.  They’re obviously doing what they see as right for their nation, and that won’t always parallel with what we want them to do.  But so long as they don’t work against our interests, I don’t have a problem with that.  The United States should work with Israel the same way we would with Germany, Australia, or Great Britain.

Where the President and I diverge on this is that the President seems to have no problem doing things that seem to be done at the expense of Israel’s security and future.  Yes, the regimes that either fell or are falling with the support of the Obama administration weren’t democracies in any way shape or form.   At best, they were of the “One man, one vote, one time” variety.  But they were at least stable and didn’t lean toward the “burn the world down and make s’mores” side of politics, which the governments that replaced them seem to be embracing wholeheartedly.

True, Hosni Mubarak and Benjamin Netanyahu were unlikely to go golfing together, but they weren’t actively trying to kill each other either.  The Muslim Brotherhood, which won the election after Mubarak blinked and didn’t use his military to clear the streets with grapeshot, was voted “Most Likely to Start a Regional War” in high school, and has been trying to do just that ever since the polls closed.  I’m confident that whoever wins in Syria will join them in that little endeavor, probably using weapons that President Obama provided them.  Add to that the humongous number of weapons that are available in Libya now that NATO no longer cares all that much, and Israel may end up standing alone.  If they’re expecting President Obama to go on national TV and explain why he’s putting aircraft carriers and Marine Expeditionary Units in the Western Med when Syria and Egypt take another shot at the title, they’re deluding themselves.

Look, I’m at the start of my administration. One nice thing about the situation I find myself in is that I will be held accountable. You know, I’ve got four years. A year from now I think people are going to see that we’re starting to make some progress. But there’s still going to be some pain out there. If I don’t have this done in three years, then there’s going to be a one-term proposition. — 2009

My Take – Well, it’s been almost 4 years, and progress has been anemic at best.  Unemployment, even if you believe the latest numbers from the administration, is horrible, especially if you consider the large number of people who have just given up and stopped looking for work.  The price of just about everything people need for their day-to-day lives is up, thanks in large part to the administration’s habit of printing money whenever the mood hits them.  Our allies don’t know they can depend on us, and our enemies laugh at us.

So, Mr. President, it’s the end of your first term, and you haven’t accomplished what you set out to do.  Are you prepared for this to be a ‘one-term proposition’?  Because I am, and I have a feeling I’m not alone.