Did you ever try to point at something you wanted your dog to look at? If your dog is anything like mine what they end up looking at is your pointing hand (at least mine does on those rare occasions when she actually takes a break from her nap and has her eyes open). To the dog your hand is not a symbol for something else or an instructive tool to direct their attention elsewhere. It’s the hand that feeds them, the hand that pets them and in hopefully rare occasions the hand that reprimands them. You put your hand out so they figure you must want them to look at the hand. It’s a pretty simple way to approach life.

We, on the other hand (pun intended), spend so much time looking for hidden meanings and explanations that we often miss the obvious in search of the obscure. We argue and debate just about every issue until every minuscule detail becomes a quantum physics project where all true meaning is lost in the endless theory of the ultimate possibility.

Where Pavlov trained his dog’s subconscious to cause it to salivate at the sound of a bell, Americans have been trained to accept that everything resides in a gray area, where there is no real truth and no distinction between right and wrong. Our lives are controlled by market tested catch phrases and slogans designed to make us feel a certain way regardless of how plausible the reality of the premise. The shibboleths of Hope and Change are a perfect example of how easily we can be misled in a desire to find inner meaning while ignoring the obvious.

Hope and Change can mean just about anything to anybody, for as each person considers its meaning they shade it with their own life experience and innermost wishes. These two catch words bring with them the infinite possibility of happiness and security in the future. It’s kind of like buying a lottery ticket. With each dollar spent comes the hope of a mega-million dollar payday and the change that will have on our lives and those we care about. But while buying a lottery ticket may give us a temporary dream of opulent living it is not a sound long-term financial plan. If you have a dollar to spend on the lottery by all means go for it, but if you are looking to cash in what is left in your 401K and increase your chances by buying as many tickets as that will pay for you will likely be sorely disappointed unless you don’t mind the long line at the soup kitchen.

That ill-conceived draining of already diminished financial resources is exactly what the Senate is considering with the renewed push to pass the ObamaCare healthcare package. We have been programmed by the political left wing and their partners in the major news media to look at the word healthcare as a symbol for something else rather than taking it at face value. When we hear the word healthcare on the six o’clock news it is now inexorably tied in our psyche to the faceless millions that liberals claim are somehow not capable of participating in it. We have lost the simplistic common sense shown by man’s best friend to simply look at healthcare for what it is, healthcare.

We are heading down the dangerous path where every aspect of our lives needs to be tied to some symbol of serving the greater good. As it relates to healthcare, diminishing services to everyone will be to no one’s benefit. The recent government sponsored report recommending a reduction in cancer screening is a perfect example of this. It’s time we started taking things at face value rather than looking for theoretical advancements through reduced expectations.

The success of any good magician in getting his audience to look where he’s pointing and not at his hand. In magic it’s called misdirection; in politics it’s called Hope and Change.

With that one word an inexperienced community activist, schooled in the finer points of strong- arm Chicago politics, was placed in control of the most powerful nation on earth. The innocuous promise of something different was all it took. It mattered not to the country what that “something different” would be, having first been conditioned by the relentless drumbeat of an ever libelous and increasingly unrealistic Democrat controlled House and Senate that what we already had was not in fact what we wanted.

The country began to mindlessly accept the Democratic Party line that the security measures put in place that had kept us safe for 7 years were somehow more dangerous than the threat they protected us against.

That the war being fought on the home turf of the terrorists was an unwinnable quagmire and that even though the enemy had been in preparation for over 30 years it should have been decided in matter of months.

That the Guantanamo Bay detainees who were removed from the battlefield while trying to kill American and Allied forces were somehow being treated unfairly. Even though their treatment was far and away superior to that of about 80% of the world’s non-incarcerated population.

That diplomacy would keep us in the good graces of the rest of the world and win the hearts and minds of our enemies regardless of their overwhelming desire to kill us.

That the economic policy of lower taxes that had actually increased to record levels the revenues realized by the government was somehow unfair to those who were receiving the government aid those revenues paid for.

That the White House and the Executive branch of government was actually under the control of an evil Vice President and a group of shadowy political figures and corporate sponsors.

That the health care provided the elderly and infirmed in this country was subpar even though countless citizens from countries with nationalized health care programs were flocking to our clinics and hospitals to get it.

That temperature fluctuations in various parts of the globe were indicative of an ominous change in the entire earth’s suddenly fragile ecostructure and that the salvation of the human race and every plant and animal inhabiting this small blue planet could only be guaranteed by the creation of a new monopolistic currency shell game.

That the decline of American industry in the global marketplace was brought about by corporate greed and that the unrealistic wages and benefit packages demanded by organized labor was the solution rather than part of the problem.

That successful Americans who risked their own money and struggled countless hours to succeed in business were somehow unfair to those who chose not to invest their time and efforts to do the same.

That the basic laws of economics and the basic principles of mathematics were unfair and therefore needed to be disregarded. It was no longer necessary that 2 + 2 = 4 if we didn’t want it to.

What would these horrible inequities of the Bush administration change into and how would that change be effected? We didn’t know and more importantly we didn’t care. We only knew that without this magical verb being put into action immediately we, the country as a whole and likely the entire world would surely perish.

It was our unwillingness to ask what “CHANGE” meant prior to electing it that has led us to where we find ourselves today. It is the realization that the expression “From the frying pan into the fire” is the very definition of “CHANGE”. And that realization has caused a marker decline in the popularity of the ultimate “CHANGE MAKER”.

The approval rating for Barack Hussein Obama has plummeted from its lofty highs in the 70% area after the election to less than 50% only six month later. This approval rating under 50% is important because, as he carried 52% of the vote, it means that after only six months even those that voted for Obama are now disapproving.

It is also the reason that so many landmark legislative moves are now being rushed for a vote. The Democrat leadership knows that if they delay even a little there will likely be no chance to get bills such as the trillion dollar ObamaCare plan passed. Especially after Treasury Secretary Tim 1040 Geithner came out with is request to increase the national debt limit currently set at $12 trillion to who knows what stratospheric level. But Democrat House and Senate Members are also aware that if they vote for these fast-tracked tax and spend behemoths they will likely be looking for new work soon.

We’ll spend the next few days talking about some of these recent developments and how the Obama administration is falling back to good old fashioned Chicago-style politics to fight back.

Change is indeed upon us. But not the kind Obama and his supporters had planned on.

Can Barack Obama change from Messiah to Pariah in less than a year?

Apparently, Yes He Can.

In just a few short weeks the Obama administration has indeed begun fulfilling one of its dominant campaign promises and brought about some fairly significant “change”.

As a fiscal conservative I salute the president’s efforts to personally reduce the national deficit by enhancing the coffers of the IRS with some serious “change” through his cabinet nomination process.

Thanks to the presidents thoughtful and in depth cabinet post decisions, hundreds of thousands of dollars have “changed” from the personal bank accounts of Timothy Geithner, Tom Daschle and Nancy Killefer to the national bank account. The entire cabinet nomination process has “changed” this historic administration’s slogan from “Yes We Can’ to “Oops My Bad”.

The extended media coverage and political debate over the tax delinquencies of the now confirmed Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has brought about a “change” of heart from Tom Daschle and Nancy Killefer who both suffer from similar nonpayment of taxes issues. This will allow the president to “change” his picks for Secretary of Health and Human Services and the newly created post of Chief Performance Officer. I can only assume that the Obama administration cabinet vetting process will “change” to a more in-depth review of a potential nominee’s background beyond checking for unpaid parking tickets prior to announcing their names to the press.

This repetition of tax delinquent nominees has allowed Democrats in the House and Senate to “change” their opinion as to what is acceptable behavior for our country’s top officials. They have “changed” from a group that was outraged at a vice president who received legally owed deferred compensation from a previous employer to a party of “changing” stories and justifications regarding illegally omitted compensation owed to the government.

As one of his first acts, the new president signed an executive order on ethics that “changed” the rules as to how lobbyists could function within his administration. He stated that this order “represents a clean break from business as usual. As of today lobbyists will be subject to stricter limits than under any other administration in history. If you are a lobbyist entering my administration you will not be able to work on matters you lobbied on, or in the agencies you lobbied during that past two years.” Less than 48 hours later the president “changed” that executive order regarding a former Raytheon lobbyist and his pick for Deputy Defense Minister, William Lynn.

But the “change” doesn’t stop there. In his latest series of executive order signings, the president has “changed” the concept of the American middle class from the 91% of non-union private sector employees to the 9% of union member employees. He has also effectively “changed” the way we will deal with our global trading partners by instituting protectionism back into American trade policy. This will undoubtedly “change” the way these trading partners deal with American business and allow for significant “change” in our ability to do business with them.

President Obama has signed an order to “change” Guantanamo Bay from a safe and effective place to detain some of the world’s most dangerous men to prime piece of vacant Cuban property. He did so without having a firm plan as to how to “change” the detainee’s geographic location, but unless things “change” he said he should have another executive order forthcoming regarding that “change”. He “changed” the rules of interrogation and keeping detainees in secret locations but when it came to the policy of covert abductions known as rendition, the president “changed” his mind and will allow that practice to continue. This brought about the unexpected “change” of diminished support from the far left faction of the Democrat party so the Obama administration will undoubtedly “change” the way it describes the practice or the name used to describe it.

But even with all this “change” the greatest “change” had to come from the new Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, when she thanked her husband Bill at her swearing in ceremony and expressed her gratitude by saying “”I am so grateful to him for a lifetime of……………. all kinds of experiences.”

Grateful? Now that’s “change”!

It is the topic of numerous talking head discussions. It is the mantra of the masses. It is the promise of things to come in Washington DC.

In his final national address President Bush signed off as Commander and Chief and began the process of turning over the reins of power to the Commissioner of Change. The 44th president will be inaugurated in just a few days bringing with him a cosmic popularity rating and a voter approved mandate of change. Political pundits will spend the coming months continuing to debate what the Bush legacy will be. Knowing the blatant disdain most of the press has for GWB they will focus their attention on the negative. Many will focus on the current economic conditions as being the number one topic most folks will remember him for. Some will center their attention on the length of the Iraq War and a few will spotlight elements of work undone or at least unfinished like social security reform or renewable energy. But if change is what the huddled masses are truly yearning for all they have to do is look around.

Since September 11, 2001 this country has seen nothing but change. I am old enough to remember the days when families would go to the airport as spectators to a sporting event and watch planes fly in and take off. I can recall when you could transfer assets with your financial advisor without sixteen kinds of federal government oversight or when you could walk into a court building without a full body cavity search.

Certainly we saw many changes being instituted into our security practices prior to the 9-11 attacks. But since that fateful day change has been multiplied exponentially in almost every facet of our daily existence. Change has become so commonplace that it is difficult sometimes to remember what it was like before our world changed that September morning.

Sometimes as I’m standing in line for the security checkpoint at the airport preparing to take my shoes off, remove all metal items from my pockets and place all liquids from my carry-on in a clear plastic bag on the x ray belt I wonder if the terrorists have already won. They have indeed forced change into the activities of our daily lives and have changed the national mindset. And isn’t that actually the goal of a terrorist? To inflict terror that changes lives and thought?

But then something happens, as it did in New York, and the real impact of change can be clearly seen. US Airways Flight 1549 took off out of New York’s LaGuardia Airport bound for North Carolina. After striking a flock of non-terrorist related birds the aircraft lost power and was forced to ditch into the frigid Hudson River putting the 155 souls onboard in definite peril.

But almost as this jetliner slid to a halt in the water a battalion of civilian boat operators were heading for the sight to pluck the passenger off the wings and bring them safely to shore. New York’s first responders were there with a remarkably well planned, practiced and executed rescue plan and New York hospitals were put on high alert to receive and treat the possible victims.

The events that happened after that plane touched down are clear reminders that we have indeed changed. We have not folded as the terrorists expected. We have not succumbed to fear. We have gotten better.

Never again will passengers allow a handful of murderers take over their airplane. Civilians will not sit idly by and wait for someone else to respond to an emergency situation. Our first responders are better trained and our emergency systems have never been more cohesive. Our country has always had its share of heroic individuals, but we have become unified in our spirit and resolve.

Perhaps history will show us that it was President Bush that led us through the most significant era of change our country has known. Not the kind of change that can be legislated from Capitol Hill but a change in our national conscience.

The 9-11 terrorists did not change us as they had hoped to, they only made us stronger.