On Nov. 4, 2008, a smooth-talking politician with no leadership experience was elected president of the United States, and a liberal Congress took charge.

The new commander in chief/chief executive and his supporters said they would get us out of Iraq, close Guantanamo, negotiate with Iran, and replace oil with ethanol.

They would fix the economic recession with government (taxpayer) stimulus spending, create millions of jobs, control a debatable climate problem with more regulation, and overhaul health care, which most Americans were satisfied with except for rising costs. Banks and industry were seized. The Federal Reserve had already lowered interest rates.

There would be no tax increases except on the wealthiest, but existing tax cuts would be discontinued. There was no mention of adding trillion-dollar deficit spending and borrowing.

And the divisive partisanship and lack of ethics in Washington would stop. Of course, all the problems were caused by the previous administration.

With a grade of “F” for performance (except daily speech-making), let’s hope the electorate has learned a lesson.

Robert Gossman

Carmel