THE CLOCK IS TICKING

Iran rejects deal to ship out their enriched uranium to Russia for further enriching is the big news of the day, as far as I am concerned.

Western negotiators and government leaders had hoped that this could be an artful solution to the fact that the Iranians had enriched their uranium in contravention of the agreements within the framework of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation treaties. They would be allowed to keep their ill gotten gains, so to speak, enriched under Russian supervision to the level necessary for use in a nuclear reactor, for purposes of generating power, which the Iranians claim is the reason they have been enriching the uranium in the first place. If they were really trying to make it 'weapons grade', then the enrichment done by the Russians would be insufficient. Under the agreement everyone would save face, and the threat of further sanctions against Iran by the international community, or an Israeli attack on their nuclear installations, would be averted.

I have believed all along, and many people far more intelligent and knowledgeable than I am about the region have also said, that the Iranians were simply stalling for time. Given enough time, they could complete the necessary enrichment of enough uranium to complete a working nuclear weapon. By extending negotiations as long as possible they could give themselves that time, as well as sowing discord and disagreement among the international community.

At some point, the Israelis will decide that they can wait no longer, and they will attack. In order to succeed, they will need to access Iraqi airspace, now controlled by the United States. What will the President do?

Ralph Peters says we are wasting our blood and treasure trying to build a nation in Afghanistan.

Thomas Friedman agrees, saying that we need to focus on Iraq.

I think the main thing to understand is that Iraq is more important because it is at the heart of the Arab world, which is where Islam originated. If Islamist extremism is to be discredited and defeated, it must be done by the Arabs themselves. The surge worked in Iraq because the Sunni Arabs of central Iraq were disgusted and frightened by the brutality and extremism of the Al Qaeda fanatics who had come to their country, ostensibly to fight the Americans. These Al Qaeda people were, mostly, Arabs, but they were foreign Arabs, Saudis, Yemenis, etc., with very little in common with the Sunni Arab tribes of Iraq. Once the locals decided they had had enough of these foreigners, they rose up against them. Fortunately, President Bush decided to help them with a surge of U.S. troops and resources. so they were able to defeat Al Qaeda.

In Afghanistan, on the other hand, while the Al Qaeda guys are still a bunch of foreigners, the nucleus of the insurgency are locals. The Taliban is indigenous, made up of men from the Pashtun tribes that dominate most of the country, especially in the south and west. Perhaps, as Friedman believes, it would be best to lessen our footprint. While that would mean the Taliban would come to dominate the country again, with terrible consequences for the locals, it might bring Bin Laden out of hiding, thus giving us a better chance of finally getting him. The only other alternative, it seems to me, is an increased presence in Afghanistan with an open ended, potentially decades long, commitment. I just don't think that makes any sense.

More signs of trouble for the Democrats in 2010, as recent polling suggests that Americans are moving to the Right.

Obama is increasingly seen, it seems to me, as weak and ineffective, with a tendency to believe that he can push the nation to the left simply by the power of his personality. Meanwhile, Pelosi and Reid don't look so great, either. With the economy still not performing well, and jobs still disappearing, the trends all point to a big protest vote at the next opportunity, unless things turn around dramatically.

Things are going from bad to worse for the owners of America's newspapers as circulation declines dramatically. Here are the figures for the top 25 newspapers. Interestingly, only The Wall Street Journal, which is the number one newspaper in terms of circulation, saw a slight increase. Could it be because that paper does not give away it's content for free online? Or because it is considered a conservative paper? Or both, or neither?

Meanwhile, CNN finishes last in ratings for primetime, behind Fox and MSNBC. I think this is more about ideology, as the conservative talk shows on Fox during primetime have long been dominant, but the effort in recent years by MSNBC to create a stable of liberal talk shows is finally starting to pay off. It is classic counter-programming. CNN, trying to be all things to all people, is merely becoming boring and irrelevant.

There will be a public option in the Senate health reform bill, with an opt out provision for the states. I still think it will not pass. It's all a delusion, anyway.

William Kristol believes the future of the GOP is outside the Beltway, as conservative leaders arise from the heartland, all of whom are not currently serving in Washington. He cites the popularity of Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney, Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich. Huckabee, Romney and Palin, of course, are all former governors, with only Gingrich tied closely to Washington as a former House Speaker. But even Gingrich is less associated with Washington, as he has been out of office for many years now.

As German troops fight in Afghanistan, and Washington insiders buzz about the resignation of a somewhat prominent young American official who is now publicly questioning why we are fighting in that country, Eugene Robinson has it right when he says that the President is faced with an all or nothing choice. Either back General McChrystal and give him the troops he needs, or withdraw.

HEALTH REFORM FOLLIES

Paul Krugman believes some version of health reform will pass, and it will prove popular with the people, just as (he believes) it is popular in Massachusetts.

Robert J. Samuelson has it right when he points out, as he has in the past, that the debate we are having about health reform is phony, since we refuse to honestly talk about why costs are going up, and why a public option (or any other reform being discussed) won't solve that problem.

In the end, I believe, no matter what passes Congress (and I am still skeptical about them getting something done), costs will continue to rise at an unsustainable rate. Why? Because, since health care is a service provided by people to other people for a fee, and because the people receiving the service are still mostly insulated from the true cost of the service they are receiving, and because the people receiving the service do not have the ability or the inclination to shop around among those who are providing that service, and because technological advances continue to provide more equipment, drugs and services (all of which cost money), and because our population of elderly people who require more services continues to grow, than it stands to reason that costs will continue to go up.

There are only two ways that I can see to restrain costs. One is to restore a true free market system where people purchase health services directly. Since most people would be unable to afford most services at their current prices, they would not use the services, which would force the providers to lower their prices or find another line of work (this would also be true if we maintained a system of health insurance, as people could only buy what they could afford, forcing prices down). We will not adopt this system, because it would leave many millions of people without health care, except by going to emergency rooms or charity wards.

The second way is to have the government provide health care directly, via a national health service as they do in Britain, or via a government-run and financed health insurance plan, as they do in Canada. With only one entity paying the bills, and that entity having the power of the state to enforce compliance, the providers of the service would be limited as to what they can charge for such services, thus forcing prices down. We will not adopt this system, because many health care providers will simply leave the system, thus causing shortages, and patients will find all sorts of drugs and procedures unavailable to them because such shortages, and the rationing that will inevitable ensue.

So, what will we do? Facing the problem of rising costs, our political leaders will pass some mish-mash of a bill that seems to help, but won't. After a few years it will become apparent that it didn't work, so another set of 'reforms' will pass, which will also be a mish-mash. When we are approaching true bankruptcy as a nation, some radical plan will finally be passed (and I haven't a clue which way it will go, that will depend on the overall political climate at that time).

It's not a pleasant vision, but that is how I see it.

Sen. Joe Lieberman, in an address memorializing slain Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, defines the battle against Islamist extremism.

NATO defense ministers express agreement with General McChrystal's plan to fight the Taliban and Al Qaeda in Afghanistan. Unfortunately, this will not push the politicians in their countries to provide more troops to get the job done.

For President Obama, the fall below 50% in the job approval ratings looms. Will he be like Reagan, who saw the ratings languish under 50% for two years, only to rebound dramatically in early 1984, eventually leading to his landslide reelection? Or will he be like Johnson, who saw his numbers briefly rebound in late 1966, only to see them slide into oblivion during 1967 and '68, eventually causing him to decide not to seek reelection? Only time will tell, and the state of the economy and the progress of our nation's two wars will be the deciding factors.

An analysis of recent polling data. Yes, things don't look so good for Obama and the Democrats at the moment. I will be especially interested to see what happens in the gubernatorial races in Virginia and New Jersey. If the GOP wins in Virginia, the Democrats will be able to excuse that one, since Virginia still has a lot of conservatives. If the GOP wins in New Jersey, however, that one will be hard to explain.

Some doctors are worried about health reform.

You may have heard about the Iranians agreeing to a plan to ship uranium to be enriched in Russia. I suspected that this was just another delaying tactic. This story seems to confirm my suspicion.

While our leaders in Washington act like the Mob, the public grows more cynical.

Save the planet, eat your dog. Really, read it, and tremble (or laugh) at the growing lunacy of the climate change debate.

Soupy Sales, dead at 83.

Officials in Great Britain are trying to do something about their culture of binge drinking. Having had some encounters with British soldiers when I was serving in the U.S. Army in Germany, I can tell you that if they are at all representative of young people in Britain, and the story I have linked to above would seem to indicate that is the case, then it is a real problem, indeed, and has been a problem for a long time.

Paul Krugman explains why the Chinese are causing problems with how they handle their currency. I expect the Chinese to continue to do what they believe is in their national interest, no matter how much suffering it causes to those of us here, or people elsewhere, for that matter.

A new Gallup poll shows President Obama's job approval rate dropping at a rate not seen in decades, while a Rasmussen poll shows even worse news for the President as a whopping 40 percent now strongly disapprove of his job performance.

In an effort to tap into populist anger against the Wall Street big shots he bailed out earlier this year, the President has ordered (not directly, of course, wink wink, nudge nudge) big pay cuts for those big shots whose companies have not paid back the money. Nice try, fellas, but you already screwed the pooch politically when you used huge amounts of taxpayer money to bail these guys out. The only way to get out of this mess is if the public begins to believe those bailouts worked to get the economy booming again, and they won't believe that until they start seeing the jobs come back. Even giving all the old folks $250 won't change that.

It also doesn't help the President that the American people are more concerned about the growing Federal debt, and in a more bipartisan way, than they have been for years.

Kristof says more troops is not the answer while Boot says it is when it comes to winning the war in Afghanistan. Both make good points.

An anthropologist says that modern man is a wimp compared to his ancestors.

Michael Ledeen has been making the case for years, and he is still trying to convince us that the Iranian government has been at war with us for years. I believe him, and I wish we were doing more to help the Iranian people get rid of their brutal regime.

Jeff Jacoby looks back on the year the dominoes fell. I remember it all very clearly and, sometimes, I still shake my head that it really happened the way it happened.

Michael Goodwin believes the Islamists, whether Taliban or Al Qaeda, are still the enemy. It pays to remember that, while the Islamists are from different ethnic groups, speak different languages and have different customs, they share the same goals. They wish to establish an Islamic Caliphate in the heart of the Middle East. To do so, they must weaken or destroy the United States and Israel. After the invasion of Iraq, they believed they would weaken us in that country. Having failed to do so, they now believe Afghanistan and Pakistan are the central front.

Why do health costs keep going up? I think it is primarily due to two reasons. One, we pay more because we get more, that is, more sophisticated and, therefore, more expensive treatments. Two, each attempted reform makes the system more complex and less like a true market system. Thus, layers of bureaucracy are added, adding to the expense.

The White House attack on Fox News as "not a legitimate news organization" is right out of the Saul Alinsky playbook for radicals. It's also rather Nixonian, if you ask me.

Pakistan, a nation at war with Islamist militants, but still focused on India.

Christopher Hitchens wonders why we would want to wait to disarm Iran.

Anne Applebaum wonders where the alliance is that is supposed to be fighting in Afghanistan. Meanwhile, President Karzai, under pressure after a U.N. audit of the election found more fraud than a Cook County race for Alderman, has decided to accept a runoff election.

It looks like there will be more fighting in Darfur.

The big shots on Wall Street, after enjoying the benefits of a big public bailout, have decided that they really don't think the Democrats will refrain from their normal inclination to tie them up in financial regulatory knots, so they are hesitant to give them money. The image of Wall Street bankers making billions while ordinary Americans walk the unemployment lines would make a tremendous basis for a populist campaign, except that the Democrats are just as much in bed with the bankers as the Republicans. Obama missed his chance to go to war with the bankers from the outset. Of course, such a plan would have probably driven us into a Depression, but it would have given Obama the political juice to really hammer the GOP, as Roosevelt did, and eliminate them from political power for at least a generation. So, not only is Obama weak, he is not terribly politically astute. I'm sure, like Jimmy Carter, he'll make a wonderful ex-President.

As I thought, the boy in the balloon story was a hoax from jump...and now the parents will be charged.

Paul Krugman says that while the banks that move money around are making money, the banks that actually lend money to businesses and consumers are not doing well, which bodes ill for any economic recovery.

Robert J. Samuelson wonders about what can be done to start creating more jobs.

The worrying rise of Mr. Wrong.

E.J. Dionne hits the nail on the head when he worries about apathy among youth voters heading into the 2010 mid-term elections. I suspect younger voters, who turned out in larger than normal numbers for Obama in 2008, will return to normal patterns for the 2010 elections, meaning the electorate at that time will be older (it will also, I suspect, be whiter and more conservative), all of which points to a good year for the GOP.

Charles Krauthammer takes a look at the foreign policy performance of President Obama and his people, and finds them wanting.

Islamic militant groups, some of them created and/or strengthened by the government of Pakistan, now pose a threat to that government. "Ye shall reap what ye hath sown".

If, as a taxpayer or a shareholder, I am expected to pay for your health care, then it stands to reason that I should be able to demand that you get in better shape. Thus, this story does not surprise me. If you want to be free to live life the way you want to, drink, smoke, eat fatty foods, or go to the gym every day, whatever, then you should be obligated to bear the responsibility for that life. This is what I believe, because I want that freedom. When you are obligated to pay for my health care, or I for yours, then we lose that freedom.

Stanley Goldfarb has this analysis of the impact of a public option on health care costs. Guess what? They won't go down.

Say goodbye to Al Martino, who sang many a hit song, but is best known for playing the role of Johnny Fontane in The Godfather, and Captain Lou Albano, who made his living as a professional wrestler and manager, but is best known for playing the role of Cyndi Lauper's father in the music video, Girls Just Want To Have Fun.

CBS is investigating itself in the wake of the Dave Letterman sex and blackmail scandal.

George Will says the GOP has a chance to take back Congress in 2010. I'm still struck by the figure Will uses from Charlie Cook, which I've seen before, of 48 Democrats representing districts that went for BOTH Bush in '04 and McCain in '08. It would seem to me that, in this political climate, those seats would be ripe for the picking.

Introducing the 12 hottest 'geek girls'. I don't know about their geekiness, but they sure look hot.

I'm not going to write much about the passage of a health reform bill out of committee in the Senate, and the media frenzy about the lone Republican, Olympia Snowe of Maine, who voted for it. The reason? There is still a long way to go. Joe Lieberman has already indicated he opposes the bill, and he is a bellwether precisely because he is a liberal who positions himself as a political centrist. The unions are running a full-page ad this morning in a lot of papers in opposition to the bill in its present form, and the insurance companies oppose it, so I don't see how it will pass. My inclination remains firm that nothing substantive will pass, just as in 1993-94.

Jeff Jacoby writes about why the Israeli-Palestinian 'peace process' is doomed.

Here are some reasons why the Russians are not afraid of an Iranian nuclear weapon.

The U.S. military reports its best recruiting year since the inception of the all volunteer force in 1973, despite the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. I guess this news is as good a measure as any other of how bad this recession is on the job front.

Concern about the weakness of the dollar grows as banks shift their currency reserves into yen and euros. This will strengthen American exports and weaken European and Japanese exports in the short run, but what about the long run?

State employees here in New Hampshire reject a furlough plan, which will force the governor to impose layoffs in order to reach his budget numbers. Almost all the states, if not all of them, are facing these kinds of problems, many of them far worse than what we are dealing with here.

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, in a fiery speech to the Israeli Parliament, says no Israeli will face a war crimes tribunal, despite a U.N. report that accuses both the Israelis and Hamas of war crimes in the most recent round of fighting in Gaza. It seems to me that the Israelis are feeling more besieged than ever, which may make it more likely that they will strike at the Iranians when they think all other options are exhausted.

Ralph Peters says the appointment of an American general to a position overseeing the training of Afghan soldiers may be our last chance to get things right in that war-torn country. The real problem, of course, (and Peters says so) is Pakistan. The Pakistani government nurtured the Taliban in the first place, and they want to keep their control over some elements of that group, but they are reaping the whirlwind. They have not yet realized that, by nurturing and Islamist movement, they have been riding the tiger's back, and are about to be thrown off.

President Obama wins the Nobel Peace Prize. This guy is going to be remembered as the most loved, most honored, and least deserving of love and honors President we've ever had.

Michael Binyon of The Times of London says this makes a mockery of the award.

John Bolton says Obama should decline the award "and then ask to be reconsidered again in three or four years when he has a record." Bolton reminds us that the last two sitting Presidents to win the award, Teddy Roosevelt in 1906 and Woodrow Wilson in 1919 were both the main architects of peace treaties, Roosevelt for the Treaty of Portsmouth that ended the Russo-Japanese War and Wilson for his part in drafting the Versailles Treaty formally ending World War I. Obama has done nothing even close by comparison.

The Prime Minister of Norway says he has already spoken with President Obama, and Obama has told him he will come to Oslo to accept the prize.

Ralph Peters examines the three options facing the President for our Afghanistan/Pakistan policy going forward.

Here is the must read article of the day, as Charles Krauthammer describes an American in decline, a decline deliberately chosen by the Liberal elites, including Barack Obama.

Victor Davis Hanson gives us some perspective about the cost of the war in Afghanistan.

Top officials inside the White House are now leaning toward a policy that would deemphasize the fight against the Taliban.

A CBO analysis of the Baucus health reform bill says it would save money. There will be many more twists and turns before this story is over.

Martin Feldstein has a better way to reform health insurance.

Increasingly, polls show that voters are growing disenchanted with the growth of government.

Remembering Rod Serling and The Twilight Zone, 50 years after the debut of that ground breaking TV show.

Scientists are racing to find a way to prevent the extinction of the ash tree.

Does the contraceptive pill turn women off to masculine men? A new study suggests that it does.

In Idaho, some school kids are enjoying the earliest snow day yet recorded.

Deroy Murdock says our lawmakers should consider how government run health care actually works in places like Canada and Great Britain before voting on a health reform plan.

The President tells members of Congress that he will not slash troop levels in Afghanistan, but has not decided on whether or not to increase those levels.

Michael Goodwin slams the President and his people for going after General McChrystal over his public comments concerning the proposed increase in troop levels for Afghanistan.

Dan Simpson takes the opposite view, calling for the President to sack the General and stop the war.

Robert D. Kaplan believes out continued presence in Afghanistan is helping the Chinese while not doing us much good, which he believes is a good argument for getting out.

Meanwhile, the British are having their own debate over troop levels in Afghanistan.

Anti-war protesters are hoping for a large turnout for their rallies this week. I expect they will not be well attended, despite the fervent hopes of the organizers. They like to look back on the great anti-war rallies during the Vietnam War, and hope to generate a similar response from the public, since polling shows increasing skepticism about the war. But their hopes will be dashed for one simple reason...the size and location of the protests during the Vietnam era, and the energy derived from them, was due almost entirely to the fact that the military draft was in place. All those college kids came out to those protests because they knew that the young men among them were one failed semester away from getting pulled into the Army and sent off to the jungles of Southeast Asia. Today, all the young men and women on college campuses know that if they want to avoid going to Iraq or Afghanistan all the need do is...nothing. Nothing at all. Only their friends and classmates from high school who VOLUNTEER for military service are at risk of getting shot or blown up on some dusty road in Iraq or Afghanistan.

Ralph Peters explains why our intelligence services are not very good at predicting things, like when or whether the Iranians will have a nuclear weapon.

Here is a financial warning sign...the debt markets are still paralyzed.

Despite warning signs like that one, at least one economist thinks things could be looking up for the Democrats in 2010, since he believes that a weaker dollar will lead to an upturn in business and hiring. I think he is whistling as he passes the graveyard.

Here is an interesting item...the Mexican drug cartels, authors of so much brutality inside their country, make most of their money from marijuana, and increasingly their profits are being eroded by locally grown weed here in the States. Here's a thought. Why don't we legalize marijuana and gut their operations, thus diminishing substantially the violence being done? Nah, that makes too much sense.

The State Department cuts off funds to an organization that is gathering and publishing information about human rights abuses inside Iran. A signal to the tyrants in Iran that we want to play ball with them? Could it lead to a scenario in which the U.S. lines up against Israel?

Some folks at the Pentagon are worried about the build up of Chinese military forces.

The Democrats can win in 2010 if they go all out for their liberal agenda, at least according to this fellow.

Richard Cohen wonders if the President has the backbone to win in Afghanistan.

Here is a story about a website called Naked Emperor News which showcases videos that expose the radical inclinations of Barack Obama and his friends.

A historian says Obama's recent mistakes could be a warning sign.

John Bolton says the Iranian government won a big victory in Geneva the other day. In my estimation, the Iranians are going to stretch out negotiations as long as possible in order to buy time as they continue to work on their nuclear weapons program. If they seem amenable to negotiations, or are in the middle of negotiations, and the Israelis strike them, they will be able to play the victim.

The irony of all of this is, as Michael Ledeen points out in this piece, that the Iranian government is deeply unpopular inside Iran, with all sorts of instances of protests. If Ledeen is to be believed, and he has always had excellent sources inside Iran, the country is simmering in a state of near revolt.

Over in Afghanistan, meanwhile, the war goes on as the Taliban manage to inflict serious casualties on American soldiers at a remote outpost.

Politically, President Obama continues to meddle in the affairs of local Democrats, which could cause problems, as the author of this piece compares Obama's meddling with the problems FDR faced in similar circumstances in 1938.

Fred Barnes joins the chorus of those who believe that if present trends continue the GOP will make big gains in the 2010 elections.

Looking back on the financial panic of 2008, Robert J. Samuelson believes government intervention at that time and into early 2009 prevented the economy from sliding into the Great Depression II.

PRESIDENTIAL RESUMES

To expand on my thoughts from yesterday...is Barack Obama the least experienced man ever to serve as President of the United States, at least when it comes to executive experience (running any kind of large organization) or national political experience (understanding how Washington and international politics works). Let's see what his predecessors were doing before they became President...

George Washington - Officer in the Virginia militia (combat veteran), plantation owner, Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army during the Revolution, President of the Constitutional Convention.

John Adams - Attorney, member of Congress, author of the Massachusetts Constitution, U.S. Commissioner to France, first American ambassador to Great Britain, Vice President of the United States.

Thomas Jefferson - State Representative, Congressman, Governor of Virginia, U.S. Minister to France, Secretary of State, Vice President.

James Madison - Delegate to the Virginia Convention, member of Council of State of Virginia, State Representative, Congressman, prime intellectual father of much of the Constitution, Secretary of State.

James Monroe - Officer in the Continental Army (combat veteran), State Representative, Congressman, Ambassador to France, Governor of Virginia, U.S. Minister to Great Britain and Spain, Secretary of State, Secretary of War.

John Quincy Adams - Attorney, Secretary to the U.S. Minister to Russia (at age 14), various Foreign Service Posts across Europe, Secretary of State.

Andrew Jackson - Attorney, State Prosecutor, State Judge, Congressman, Senator, General of State Militia (combat veteran), Military Governor of Florida.

Martin Van Buren - Attorney, State Senator, U.S. Senator, Governor of New York, Secretary of State, Vice President.

William Henry Harrison - Militia Officer (combat veteran), Territorial Secretary, Territorial Governor of Indiana, Congressman, Senator.

John Tyler - State Representative, Congressman, Governor of Virginia, U.S. Senator, Vice President.

James K. Polk - Attorney, State Representative, Congressman, Speaker of the House, Governor of Tennessee.

Zachary Taylor - Military officer (combat veteran of two wars), General in command of troops in Mexican War.

Millard Filmore - Attorney, State Representative, Congressman, Vice President.

Franklin Pierce - Attorney, State Representative, Congressman, U.S. Senator.

James Buchanan - Attorney, State Representative, Congressman, U.S. Minister to Russia, U.S. Senator, Secretary of State, Ambassador to Great Britain.

Abraham Lincoln - Attorney, State Representative, Congressman.

Andrew Johnson - Governor of Tennessee, U.S. Senator, Military Governor of Tennessee (during the Civil War), Vice President.

Ulysses S. Grant - Military officer, West Point Class of 1843 (combat veteran of Mexican War), Colonel of Volunteers, later Brigadier General rising to Commanding General of all U.S. forces in the Civil War.

Rutherford B. Hayes - Attorney, military officer rising to rank of major general in Civil War (combat veteran), Congressman, Governor of Ohio.

James A. Garfield - College Professor, Lay Preacher, military officer rising to rank of major general in Civil War (combat veteran), Congressman.

Chester A. Arthur - Attorney, Quartermaster General for New York, Collector of the Port of New York, Vice President.

Grover Cleveland - Attorney, Mayor of Buffalo, Governor of New York. (after defeat in 1888, returned to practice of law, running again for President, and winning, in 1892, becoming the only man not already sitting in the White House to claim Presidential experience upon entering the office a second time).

Benjamin Harrison - Attorney, military officer rising to the rank of brigadier general in the Civil War (combat veteran), U.S. Senator.

William McKinley - Military officer rising to the rank of major in the Civil War (combat veteran), Attorney, Congressman (eventually Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee), Governor of Ohio.

Theodore Roosevelt - State Representative, Rancher, U.S. Civil Commissioner, New York City Police Commissioner, Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Colonel of Volunteers in the Spanish-American War (combat veteran), Governor of New York, Vice President.

William Howard Taft - Attorney, Superior Court Judge, Solicitor General of the United States, Federal Judge, Head of the Philippine Commission (administering the Philippines, then under U.S. colonial control after the Spanish-American War), Secretary of War.

Woodrow Wilson - Attorney, College Professor, President of Princeton University, Governor of New Jersey.

Warren G. Harding - Newspaper publisher, U.S. Senator.

Calvin Coolidge - Attorney, Governor of Massachusetts, Vice President.

Herbert Hoover - Mining Engineer, business manager and company representative (mining companies), Food Administrator during World War I, Director of American Relief programs after the war, Secretary of Commerce.

Franklin D. Roosevelt - State Senator, Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Governor of New York.

Harry S. Truman - Farmer, Bank Clerk, Captain in command of a field artillery battery in World War I (combat veteran), Haberdasher, County Commissioner, Presiding Judge (in effect, head of the county commission), U.S. Senator, Vice President.

Dwight D. Eisenhower - Military officer, West Point Class of 1915, did not see combat in World War I, but rose through the ranks, eventually becoming the Supreme Commander of Allied Forces in Europe during World War II, President of Columbia University, Commander of NATO forces in Europe.

John F. Kennedy - Naval Officer (combat veteran), Congressman, U.S. Senator.

Lyndon B. Johnson - Schoolteacher, Congressional Legislative Assistant, Head of Texas National Youth Administration Office (New Deal Agency), Congressman, U.S. Senator, Senate Majority Leader, Vice President.

Richard M. Nixon - Attorney, Naval Officer (served in South Pacific during World War II, but did not see combat), Congressman, U.S. Senator, Vice President.

Gerald R. Ford - Naval Officer (combat veteran), Congressman, House Minority Leader, Vice President.

Jimmy Carter - Naval Officer, Annapolis Class of 1946, Farmer, State Senator, Governor of Georgia.

Ronald Reagan - Sportscaster, Film Actor, (did military service in WWII acting in films produced by the Army), President of the Screen Actors Guild, Spokesman for General Electric, Governor of California.

George H.W. Bush - Naval Aviator (combat veteran), founder and head of oil exploration company in Texas, Congressman, Ambassador to the U.N., Chairman of the Republican National Committee, Head of U.S. Liaison Office in Beijing, Director of the C.I.A., Vice President.

Bill Clinton - Attorney, head of McGovern Campaign in Arkansas, College Professor, Attorney General of Arkansas, Governor of Arkansas.

George W. Bush - Businessman (Harvard MBA), Air National Guard officer, Managing General Partner of Texas Rangers, Governor of Texas.

Barack Obama - Community Organizer, Attorney, College Professor, State Senator, U.S. Senator.

So, decide for yourself. Is Barack Obama the least qualified man ever to be President, if you look at those things that would give someone executive or high-level political experience on the national and international scale?

A quick perusal of the list indicates that Obama is the first President to have no executive experience (other than heading up a political campaign) since.....hold it....Abraham Lincoln. That's right. Arguably our best President, Lincoln had never run anything larger than a two-man law office before he ran for President. But, his performance in office proved again and again that he was a natural leader of men, a brilliant politician, and he made himself into an expert on military affairs. Can Barack Obama, who seems to be a very smart fellow himself, do as Lincoln did and educate himself in time to prevent all measures of calamities from assailing the country? Only time will tell. I have my doubts.