Does Obama want America to succeed?

That’s a broad statement. What does American success look like? I suspect the devil is in those details.

In my perception, Obama's idealism does not so much include a sense of America "the competitor" as it does America the "moral leader." This is a fundamental problem. Competition is intrinsic to nature. Whatever ceases to compete, dies – plant, animal, city, corner store…or country.

The classic liberal sentiment is that America is such a successful competitor that we have gained, kind of, a monopoly on success – at the expense of the rest of the world. This is the source of “liberal guilt.” To them, “moral leadership" consists of working to raise the standard of living throughout the rest of the world -- and the "morality" comes through the sacrifice of it all, the sacrifice of America's wealth and competitive advantage.

So, they’d have us compete…but for the other team.

That's no mere speculation; it's the only interpretation of countless policy actions that span the last several decades:

· Persistent, detrimental trade imbalances
· Countless billions in foreign aid -- IMF, World Bank, and numerous individual countries
· Massive loans, never expected to be repaid
· American capital and technology used to establish competitive advantages for other countries…at the expense of our domestic industries
· Trade agreements where America loses big
· Unchecked immigration

...these are just a few methods...and all of them represent a wealth transfer from the American people to the rest of the world, courtesy of the American politicians…whom we elected – ostensibly – to serve our best interests

Now, I'm not trying to argue the merits of helping our neighbors; what I am saying is that A) it hasn't been our decision, and B) we're only now starting to suspect the radical nature in which it has been done.

Americans, with their young sense of history, have felt a sort of complacency about their dominant role in the world – their higher standard of living. So we’ve been very willing to help those less fortunate than us – we’re like the rich kid who says they could care less about money, not understanding that we can only say that because we’ve never gone without it.

So does Obama want the US to succeed? I have no reason to believe that Obama is anything other than the far-left liberal that he has always claimed to be. I think it’s far more probable that Obama wants the world to succeed, and American success – to him – will be measured by how well we help to accomplish that. Translation: we’re going to have to “put some skin in the game”.

Liberals love to throw around the supposed statistic that "America is 5% of the world's population, but consumes 40% of its resources" To me, Obama's policies seem far more geared towards rectifying that imbalance than they do in maintaining America's prosperity.

How else can you explain his energy policy?

Taxing energy for the explicit purpose of making it much more expensive? Opposing drilling, refining, and new power plants nearly everywhere?

Energy is the life-blood of an economy, and Obama has loudly communicated through word and policy that he intends to starve us.

We’re already on the ropes…what is he thinking?

Consider this: experts know that an oil crisis of crippling proportions is directly upon us – math, not opinion. Do the research. It is also a fact that alternative energy sources are – at minimum – a decade away from being able to make any significant impact on our energy needs. We are going to run into a brick wall – imminently. In fact, we had already begun smacking into the wall when this financial train wreck granted us a reprieve. I have a hard time believing that Obama isn’t aware of this – just like it seemed utterly improbable that they didn’t see the credit crisis coming a mile away. I have to allow for the possibility that Obama is foolish and/or locked into a defunct paradigm, but my overwhelming suspicion is that he has every intention of taking America out at the knees…….some bushes you have to cut back to the roots to make way for the new growth.

I don’t think American prosperity even makes it onto his list of moral imperatives…The thought -- as a guiding concern -- is probably, to him, actually immoral.

…unless it can one day be accomplished with minimal consumption, minimal impact upon the environment, and without great disparity when measured against the living conditions of the rest of the world

…but we’ve got to recede a long ways before we can find that place