Washington, DC, USA. I have never been an Obama Fanatic, nor was I a diehard true believer of any other recent president with the possible exception of Jack Kennedy when I was 12.

It should be blindingly obvious that I was never a diehard true believer of W, Bubba, Senior, or Dutch, or any president for that matter. By the end of Jimmy C's third year, I knew he was a goner. My only hope was that he didn't take the country with him.


But the president before us is Barack. He now has an extensive record on which to evaluate him (something he didn't have the when he ran the last time). So what about Barack? What did he promise us? What has he accomplished? He is no longer the innocent youth at the front of a holy crusade. He’s done stuff: He has passed a health care package. He hasn’t figured out how to fund it yet without sending the United States into bankruptcy or how to make it work without the federal government rationing what medicines and treatments we may take.



To summarize recent history: W was dyslexic, Bubba was a satyr, Senior really didn't want it, Reagan was Reagan, Carter was incompetent, Jerry was brief, Dick was crazy, Lyndon was in over his head and Jack was shot.

Jerry wasn't in office long enough but he wasn't Dick.

Dick, I didn't trust, but then who did? I admit now Nixon had the potential to be the best president of the last half of the 20th Century but — and it's a big but — the man was paranoid and prone to self-delusion.

By the time he resigned, Nixon was certifiably unbalanced.

We can't judge his actions by the same standards we would use for supposedly sane presidents and the bottom line is, as always, we voted him into office. Twice.But Barack has passed a health care package.

And, as promised during his campaign, he immediately ordered U. S. Forces to withdraw from Iraq and Afghanistan, settling both wars in a matter of weeks. Women became equal partners in the emerging Afghan and Iraqi democracies.

And Barack has passed a health care package.

Barack has tamed the nuclear beasts that are North Korea and Iran, putting the nuclear genie back into the bottle. He spoke fine words and the world listened again and again. And again.

And Barack has passed his health care package.

He spoke upon the Arab Spring and all the world became well. Egypt, Syria, and Libya and all those others became symbols of democracy and at peace with Israel. The rights of women were permanently established and written into the secular constitutions of Arab nations everywhere.

And then Barack has passed a health care package.

He brought good tidings of great joy to one and all. He stood before the multitude and proclaimed the new kingdom that was soon upon us. He blessed the economy and provided stimulus which then multiplied out to the 99% and ended the great recession.

And he did pass that health care package.

Barack promised the gay community that he would pass the Employment Non-Discrimination Act and even worked up a sweat during the campaign when asked about it. With unstoppable majorities in both houses of the Congress, Barack passed his health care package and, seeing that it was good, then rested on the seventh day.

He has promised us he will pass the Employment Non-Discrimination Act if we would only give him our vote and elect him to a second term, a term in which his party may control neither house of Congress.

But he has passed his health care package, hasn’t he?

Barack promised us he would rescind Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell and he did so after the Secretary of Defense demanded the President take action. Verily did the President then move. Blessed is the President and Mr. Gates without whose determination and effort we would still not ask and not tell.

The President takes the credit but Mr. Gates ramrodded the Department of Defense into submission. Barack takes the bows that Mr. Gates graciously provided him.

And Barack has passed a health care package after all.

And, once the polls showed that a majority of Americans supported same sex marriage and after various court rulings began to overturn Bill Clinton’s Defense of Marriage Act, Barack ordered the federal government to withdraw administration support for the act, declaring it was unconstitutional.

You don’t need a Roman Sibyl to know which way the wind is blowing.

And he did pass that health care package.

Now, Barack once more is running for office, asking us to re-elect him for a second term. He promises us a president who is not isolated from the people, who feels our pain, and who shares our dreams and who draws his strength and his wisdom from every day Americans.

Just like Jimmy Carter.

He’s spoken to us on many occasions about national concerns, the energy crisis, reorganizing the government, our nation's economy, and issues of war and especially peace.

Just like Jimmy Carter.

The threat is nearly invisible in ordinary ways. It is a crisis of confidence. It is a crisis that strikes at the very heart and soul and spirit of our national will. We can see this crisis in the growing doubt about the meaning of our own lives and in the loss of a unity of purpose for our nation. The erosion of our confidence in the future is threatening to destroy the social and the political fabric of America.

—   President Jimmy Carter, televised speech on July 15, 1979

Barack tells us that Congress is twisted and pulled in every direction by hundreds of well-financed and powerful special interests. Every extreme position is defended to the last vote, almost to the last breath by one unyielding group or another. A balanced and a fair approach that demands sacrifice, a little sacrifice from everyone, is abandoned like an orphan without support and without friends.

Just like Jimmy Carter in 1979.

Barack informs us that America suffers from a crisis of confidence, a crisis that strikes at the heart and soul and spirit of our national will. There is a growing doubt about the meaning of our own lives and in the loss of a unity of purpose for our nation. He tells us that he is the One to lead us out of the wilderness and into the Promised Land.

Just like Jimmy Carter when he ran for re-election.

But Barack has passed his health care package and he says that is good enough for him.