After Change, It's Time for Another Change

Change. 

That's what the Obama administration is supposed to be about. "Change" was the one-word message that he ran on. And at the time he was elected, America was anxious for change. The economy was sick, and we were sick of the war. And when you feel sick, you'll give almost anything to change for the better.

But does anybody remember specifically how he was going to change America, other than vague promises to make it a better place? We went out and asked folks if they remembered exactly how Obama was going to change America. While everyone remembered the "change" slogan, literally no one could remember what policies "change" policies Obama ran on.

Like many ad campaigns, people remember the logo better than they remember the product. President Obama won on "change," without being specific about what that change was. And that appealed to us, because we wanted to feel better.

But we didn't want to fundamentally change the way America did business. President Obama did. He and his change makers wanted to turn America and our whole society into something different…something more like European socialism than American individualism.

Of course, if President Obama had said he wanted to change America into a system more like European socialism, he never would have been elected. So he changed his rhetoric, from this comment in 2007: “I happen to be a proponent of a single-payer, universal health-care plan.”

To this, taken from a speech in 2010: “Nobody is talking about some government takeover of health care.”

As for foreign policy, most American voters were sick of the activist policies of George Bush. So again, they turned to Obama for change. But we doubt voters like what they're getting now. Seeing the U.S. defer to France -- or worse, the United Nations -- for guidance about no-fly zones in Libya reminds us more of Jimmy Carter's foreign policy than Ronald Reagan's.

If Obama had run on the U.S. being a lap dog to the U.N., he would have lost. But again, he left out the specifics. So what now? Will Americans stand up to a change that they don't believe in and don't want. Or have we gone too far down the road to change the new path we're on?