Barack Obama does not understand the needs and wants of most Americans.  He misunderstood the meaning of his celebrated election.  Americans were proud of the fact that they had risen above race in electing their president.  His Race was not the reason he was elected. He does not understand the reason he won the election.  Here are some things he and his advisers do not understand.

1. Mr. Obama wanted to believe most Americans had read his books and supported his views.  Most did not read his books.  Most people did not know the meaning of “change.”

2. He and his advisers neglected to consider his opponent, John McCain.  If elected the senator would have been 72 years old at his inauguration.  That fact alone was a concern to many people. Added to that issue was the concern most people had about Sarah Palin becoming President.  Many conservative journalists voiced this view.  Among them was Kathleen Parker.

3. His speeches in Europe, prior to his election, seemed well received, but they were not given to Americans.  American views of the world are considerably different from those of Europeans.  Most Europeans do not view significant involvement in other country’s affairs an appropriate foreign policy.

4. As a consequence of the 9-11 World Trade Center attack Americans want to insulate themselves to the extent that there will never be another attack in this country.  Compare that view with the calmer behavior of Europeans after attacks in London and Madrid.  The Eiffel Tower has been evacuated at least twice this year and there was little hysteria surrounding those incidents.  Mumbai, India was the victim of a terrorist attack in 2009.  In each of those instances those nations did not display the hysterics that has been so prevalent in the United States.  Consider the American reaction to the Detroit Bomber, the Times Square bomber, and the shooting at Fort Hood.

5. The financial crises has impacted almost every family in America.  Despite that, Mr. Obama has marched to a different drummer.  He saw his mandate as clear. Change is what he promised and that was what he has determined to carry out.

Instead of listening to James Carville’s famous words, “It’s the economy, Stupid”, Mr. Obama has decided to stay the course.  Howard Fineman of the Huffington Post reported on the Chris Matthews show that David Axelrod indicated there will be no consequential changes to the Obama Whitehouse.  Nancy Pelosi and her entire team will be the face of the Democratic Party.

Unless there is a change of course there will be a Republican president elected in November 2012.

Every president of the United States wants to be remembered as one of the best that ever lived.  So it’s no wonder that George W. Bush has written an autobiography that conveys that message.  To sell the book and his place in history as one of our best presidents he has appeared on some widely watched television shows including Oprah Winfrey and a special hosted by Matt Lauer.

I am quite certain that most Republicans will praise him as a great leader.  The facts do not support that opinion.  Neither his religion nor his good intent is in question.  What is questionable is his judgment.  He surrounded himself with people whose motives are very questionable.  He doesn’t regret taking the country into a war in Iraq that was based upon faulty information. He sees no error in his decision to limit the troop build up in Afghanistan and the limited search for Osama bin Laden.  He sees nothing wrong with the Federal response to the Katrina Hurricane that devastated New Orleans.  He blocked the use of Federal dollars for stem cell research. Finally at the end of his presidency he promoted the bailout of Wall Street bankers and poorly managed commercial banks.

He wants to be remembered as the president who prevented another terrorist attack like 9-11 which did happen while he was president.  He had been warned of the possibility of such an attack by the Clinton administration.  He went to extremes to ensure there would not be another attack that resulted in the Patriot Act which many people believe is an infringement of individual rights guaranteed by the Constitution.  He instituted the Department of Homeland Security that has had questionable success.  He opened a prison at Guantanamo Bay that denies its prisoners the right to a speedy trial and instituted water boarding.

There are too many other things his administration did that were clearly extreme and possibly illegal.  I wrote about some of them back on September 17, 2008.

So I am stuck trying to determine what happened during his presidency that would qualify him to be considered even a good president let alone a great president.

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November 12, 2010: Now to add even more to this obviously flawed book is a report on Huffington Post that some of the information he imparts was lifted from advisers books.  Copies are now in Costco at less than $23.00.

A quote from Cool Hand Luke, 1967.

If ever I watched our elected officials in denial it occurred this past week. The leaders of both political parties continued to march to their own drummer without regard to the needs and wishes of the electorate. Is it any wonder that so many people do not vote and say that their voting would mean nothing?

John Boehner is focused on taxes and health care. Mitch McConnell is focused on making Barack Obama a one term president. The president and the Democrats are focused on defending their last two years of legislation. Barack Obama has said that it was not his policies that were wrong. Instead contends that he had not adequately communicated the benefits of his policies.

The number one issue is the economy and JOBS. No one in either party is discussing this issue. Perhaps the reason is they do not have one good idea to solve the problem of unemployment.

If ever there was an opportunity for a third political party it is now!

The world is changing so fast that no one can predict the election of 2012.  What can be said is that the truly Democratic and more liberal parts of the nation are the Pacific Coast and the North East states.

I won’t be surprised to see another large change in Congress in November 2012.

So far Sarah Palin has come off as a sloganeer with little real message.  This new slogan could easily rally her followers.  It goes to the heart of everyone wanting to restore America to greatness.

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By ANDY BARR | 10/11/10 12:21 PM EDT Updated: 10/11/10 12:47 PM EDT

Sarah Palin spoke publicly over the weekend about the 2012 race for the first time in months, mapping out what she sees as the themes for the presidential election.

“These two elections, 2010 and 2012, go hand-in-hand,” Palin said Sunday at a business conference in Bakersfield, according a report from NBC. “The theme of 2010 has got to be rebuke their errors, reject, repeal; and then the theme of 2012 — it’s renew, revive and restore.”

Up until the weekend, the former Alaska governor had been deflecting almost all 2012 speculation by saying only that she was focused on November’s midterm election.

But in her speech Sunday, Palin outlined the message she or other potential Republican candidates should push to counter President Barack Obama.

Palin said that Republicans should pledge to “renew our optimistic, pioneering spirit, revive our free market system and restore constitutional limits and our standing in the world, as that abiding beacon of freedom.”

The message, she said, should be “not transformation but restoration with a ‘Great Awakening’ that we already feel emerging across America.”

“We will win this year, we will win this year,” she said. “And I believe we will win in 2012.”

via Sarah Palin test drives 2012 message – Andy Barr – POLITICO.com.