Nero had his fiddle and President Obama has his golf club and transformational social agenda. While real problems confront our country we have a President who has demonstrated an inability to adjust beyond his recreational time and policies that have proven to fail time and time again. At the center of these policies are the pillars of taxing, government spending and wealth redistribution.

Where once economically thriving states like California and Connecticut were the envy of other states, these pillars have pushed these states to the verge of bankruptcy. Connecticut has just had its credit rating reduced to AA by Fitch putting additional burden on the state’s taxpayers. The United States faces the same specter under an Administration that believes recent employment numbers demonstrate that its policies are working.  And, that higher taxes are the solution to unemployment, budget deficits and a national debt, all that have skyrocketed under President Obama’s watch.

These policy pillars haven’t worked in Europe, which is in worse shape than we are, as well as states like New Jersey, New York, Connecticut and California. And solutions like healthcare, that the President barely got passed with an overwhelming majority in Congress, are being rejected by the American people for their content and for the complete lack of transparency with which the legislation was written and passed.

But that’s just the domestic policy failures. The President’s leadership style has demonstrated nothing more than a candidate’s stump speech. Whether it’s the economy, immigration or the Gulf oil spill, his first response is to find a demon then blame and attack. This is hardly the stuff of a leader, demagoguery  yes,  leadership no. The issues continue to escalate and people are beginning to not listen to him. It’s the same ol’ tune.  But the President can put all his cares and worries away with a celebrity filled White House dinner or a round of golf where his much vaunted cool probably works well.

On the foreign policy front our allies have little incentive to align with us and our enemies have little to fear. The President’s speech from Cairo to the Arab world did nothing more than to signal weakness to our enemies. Hamas and Hezbollah are still terrorist organizations that have not changed their goals or methods one iota. Iran still is in hot pursuit of nuclear weapons.  Apologizing for your country and allowing foreign leaders to address Congress and criticize America for its laws and policy disputes is not going to win over allies or enemies. As Charles Krauthammer so aptly wrote, “this is not America in retreat, it is America in decline.” This has been a matter of choice, not inevitability.

Candidate Obama could be likened to the Wizard of Oz. Now President Obama is a Nero. He could at least learn to play a mean fiddle like Charlie Daniels. Or just learn anything for that matter.  History and our Constitution would be a good place to start.

Skip March

RRTC Member