Obama has made America cool again - and more than that he's made his own brand arguably the most powerful the world has ever known.

Part of Obama's persona is self-reliance. He's calm he's cool he's self-possessed. In many ways he has tried to define himself in opposition to Clinton's sometimes needy often undisciplined emotionalism.

That is who Barack Obama is - a person of admirable character - and that is who he has remained for me over these last four years. I have not agreed with his every decision but never once have I seen him break his cool lose his composure or abandon his insightful perspective - even during the most serious and/or absurd national disasters.

Obama has no power to change American policy because there are people who specialize in drawing these policies which have been and still are hostile towards Islam.

The reality of split government puts a premium on creativity within the administration. President Obama needs to put the right people in charge of the agencies and then have them push the bounds of administrative power to change policy through those agencies. President Obama has a pretty good track record of this.

President Obama's version of America is a divided one - pitting us against each other based on our income level gender and social status. His policies have failed! We are not better off than we were 4 years ago and no rhetoric bumper sticker or campaign ad can change that.

Ever since the collapse of cap and trade legislation and the realization that President Obama is unlikely to ever utter the words 'climate change' in public again much less use the bully pulpit to prepare the nation for the catastrophic risks of inaction the movement has been in a funk.

Among all the tests President Obama faced in his first term his biggest failure was climate change.

Few expected very much of Franklin Roosevelt on Inauguration Day in 1933. Like Barack Obama seventy-six years later he was succeeding a failed Republican president and Americans had voted for change. What that change might be Roosevelt never clearly said probably because he himself didn't know.

Obama won the presidency on the strength of his message and the skills of the messenger. Now the talk of hope and change feels out of tune when so many Americans are out of work over-mortgaged and worried that life will be even tougher for their children.