2012 election drama kicks off

~ Obama's first term provides an open-door opportunity for others

Well, who would have thought? President Obama has officially launched his re-election campaign with an electronic announcement and a series of costly fundraising events.

There are more storylines to the 2012 campaign than a made-for-TV miniseries.

Will the lovely Ms. Clinton seek to unseat the former junior senator from Illinois since the bad blood between the two has not improved substantially? Will the Obama faithful flock to his side despite a trail of broken promises and financial disaster? Will the majority of Americans remember the rising deficits, the escalated spending and the obvious lack of direction that dogs this administration?

And while we're at it, will the GOP find someone who is capable of expressing the outrage felt by many Americans in a manner to frame the election appropriately? Will the liberal wing of the Democratic party -- and that includes most of the party anymore -- hypocritically dismiss the recent action in Libya and elsewhere as a minor glitch for their candidate?

A new poll out this week gives the Obama administration a dismal 42 percent approval rating. But those polls are meaningless. My layman's interpretation of those poll numbers is that the American public knows we can do better but they are uncertain how or with whom.

And that means it's up to the Republicans to offer those alternatives and clearly explain the differences.

I want to see a poll on trust. Judging performance is often based on "what have you done for me lately" and swings wildly from crisis to crisis. But trust is a gut feeling that the leader of the free world is capable of exercising common sense, logic and what is best for this country. Increasingly, we find trust in this administration is limited to those special interests who benefit from a second term of this administration.

Sure, we can survive another term of this administration. But what will emerge at the end of that second term will not be the country we have today, much less the country that enjoyed the greatest respect in the world.

It will be a country so deep in debt that it will take a generation or more to dig our way back into prosperity. And for the first time in history, that prosperity is not guaranteed.

A second term will promise a more divided country along racial, financial and philosophical lines than ever in our history.

And a second term will promise a decline in our nation's standing in the world.

We are in trouble, and either few are paying attention or fewer still care.

Welcome to the kick-off of the 2012 elections.