Throughout time people have chosen the wrong leaders. They have chosen because of suggestion, because of a person's appearance and/or the lies a candidate tells.
The Israelites chose Saul over David because he looked more kingly than David, but their real mistake was choosing Saul over God. The prophet Samuel warned them that having a king wasn't in their best interest, but they were blinded by the look of temporal regality, which they had determined necessary.
Whether Saul was bad from the start, or he became bad, is not the question – the question is, why did the people choose Saul over God?
I'm not inclined to credit the snake with the fall of man in the Garden of Eden – and I'm only willing to blame the woman so much. I hold Adam responsible – he chose to disobey God to please his mate.
My point being that, from the beginning of recorded history, against warning and all caution, people have made easily avoidable errors in judgment that they very quickly regretted. And once said errors were made, they compounded things by not moving immediately to correct them.
I don't blame Obama for being a corrupt, dishonest, congenital liar – looking at his gene pool and the associations he gravitated toward, it can be argued that little more can be expected of him. He is the spawn of elapids, so what else could he be? I blame the people who voted for him. They believed his poorly told lies and his vacuous promises have resulted in the epitome of the Feast of Barmecide.
I don't blame George W. Bush for being what he was – I blame those of us who, longing for another President Reagan, ascribed to him that which he never claimed himself to be. We bought clever phrases like "compassionate conservatism," which was just another way to say "spend like a drunken sailor and give those deserving immediate deportation amnesty."
For the sake of discussion, think what we might have been spared had Adam obeyed God instead of listening to Eve. Think of what Israel could have avoided had the people returned to Samuel and beseeched him to call upon God in repentance for having turned their backs on Him in favor of a worldly king.
It's not the worst of crimes to be fooled or misled on occasion – it happens. But if a salesman misleads us, we return the item for a new one, and/or having realizing that the business we purchased from was dishonorable, we shop elsewhere. But with politicians, voters continue to make the same mistakes while expecting different outcomes.
Obama has been an abject failure to all but Planned Parenthood, SEIU, NEA and Leninists. Sadly, many blacks did, do and will support him because of his melanin content, even though he's not black – he's Kenyan and communist. And unlike Bush, he is sans propriety and character.
However, we will soon have the opportunity to correct the mistake in 2012. In fact, we'll have the opportunity to correct many mistakes. We can keep accepting the same recycled lies of the Republican National Committee, the Democratic National Committee and their mouthpieces, or we can change the way we view all candidates.
Just as we cannot wait for, nor count on, politicians to police themselves – we cannot allow them to remain in office if they break their promises, nor should we reward them with re-election just because they're the lesser of two evils.
The truth is life as we have known it and enjoyed it will end if we do not make better decisions – decisions that aren't based on a corrupt view of personal gain. I know this sounds harsh to many who lived through it, but had people not been so self-absorbed, they would have immediately demanded the impeachment of Roosevelt for introducing his "court-packing bill." (See my column "Madison must be rolling over.")
Just before the 2008 elections, I said the only thing worse than electing Hillary would be electing McCain, and the only this worse than electing McCain would be electing Obama. I was right, and this time I'm saying the only thing worse than electing Obama to one term would be electing him to a second. However, I add that it would be tantamount to re-electing Obama if we continue to foolishly reward the same recycled politicians, expecting them to make a difference, or elect another loser wrapped in slick packaging.
When will people realize that politicians hire handlers whose only requirement is to get them elected? It's our job to realize that we hold power and they speak for us because we let them, not because they are smarter or better spoken than we are. They are our representatives who are to conduct affairs as we instruct them.
Getting into office may be their holy grail – but a candidates' being elected or re-elected is our responsibility.