In a couple of weeks, we will be able to put another semester on the shelf.  Like most terms in which I have taught, I have learned a great deal.  I had to teach a math class this term, and I have not taught math in a long time.  As the term went on, though, I get better and the students seemed to do better, as well.  Funny how that works.  To finally get success, one must be flexible enough to make changes and adjustments that will accommodate as many students as possible without losing track of the fact the course is necessarily difficult.  Above all, one must not lower standards and one must constantly seek excellence is all that is done--by the professor, the students and the college.

There are many parallels when one examines a presidential administration.  In my lifetime, I have been able to watch a host of presidents come into office, adjust to changing circumstances, and in most cases, were reasonably successful because they never lost sight of the high standards Americans expect from our leaders.  Similarly, in my lifetime, I have witnessed two administrations that have revealed fatal weaknesses in that they could not adjust, would not adjust, would not recognize the exceptionality of America and subsequently left the nation in much worse condition than existed when they came to power.  Those administrations are eerily similar in personality and outcomes.  Carter and Obama will forever be linked as abject, total failures.

Carter was an intelligent man.  He was reported to have had the highest IQ of any president to ever hold the office.  Unfortunately, he was a terrible administrator.  He surrounded himself with horribly inept people and was so sure he was right about things that he would not heed any advice from anyone.  As the country slipped further and further into recession, he blamed the American people for the malaise in which we found ourselves.  He, of course, never took responsibility for any of the trouble we were having.  He still has not acknowledge his problems today.

Barack Obama is evern worse, if that is possible.  He is not very intelligent.  He is narcissistic and arrogant.  He is operating in a fantasy world of his own making.  He has surrounded himself with people as dumb and ideological as he is.  He cannot help himself and thus he cannot help us.  Hopefully, we can get rid of him in 2013.

Remember that it took us nearly 10 years to recover fully from Carter.  It may take a generation to fix what Obama has done to us.  In order to fix things, however, we must have the will to get things back to a more traditional founding.  Let's hope we can find the will to do so.