Anyone with a teenager knows that given the opportunity, limits will be pushed. It’s what teenagers do as they attempt to define themselves in contradiction to the generation that precedes them.  And while too much restriction or stifling by parents can harm a teen’s exploration into identity, too little can, and usually does, result in extremist and destructive behavior.

Enter President Obama’s approach to Islamic terrorism.

I wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt. I wanted to believe that he knew that unrestrained Islamists, the Muslim Brotherhood and Ahmadinejad (to name just a few) are dangers to their own countries and the world at large. I wanted to believe he was doing everything he knew to protect Americans and American interests abroad.

However, with each passing failed opportunity…from his silent dismissal of the young Iranian protestors… to his misread of now disastrous and misnamed Arab Spring…. to his recent and insulting refusal to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu…my want has been replaced by a certainty that he is either incompetent or an enemy of this Nation.

Again, I prefer to give him the benefit of the doubt and conclude he is incompetent. What I will have a much more difficult time doing is giving anyone the benefit of the doubt who votes to re-elect this incompetent and out-of-touch politician.

In 2008, we knew little about Barack Obama. We knew little because he had done little.  But we looked past his lack of accomplishment, and his race, to trust his words and invest our future in his potential.  In hindsight, his words were vacuous and his potential nonexistent.

We can forgive ourselves our naiveté and our poor investment so long as we don’t make the same mistake again.

If enough of us are unconscious enough to go to the polls on November 6^th and give this man four more years to finish wreaking havoc on the Nation and the world at large, we will  have no one to blame but ourselves and nowhere to call a safe haven from the radicals and terrorists he calls friend.

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