At the close of this week’s two-day Nuclear Security Summit, President Obama was trying to answer a question regarding the United State’s leadership position in the quest for nuclear disarmament. He asserted that the U.S. finds itself in the driver’s seat because, “Whether we like it or not, we remain a dominant military superpower.” Initially, the remark garnered little attention. Slowly however, the quote is gaining traction and people are wondering exactly what he meant.

Are we to assume that he doesn’t like our status as a military superpower? Would he seriously prefer that we downgrade our armed forces to the point where we defer our military responsibilities to other, more capable, countries? John McCain called the quote “incredible,” but his surprise at the statement is the only thing that’s really shocking. Since his inauguration, President Obama has repeatedly made decisions that can only lead one to the conclusion that he views American leadership with a sense of shame. Our position as a global trailblazer is, “whether we like it or not,” going to be the first casualty in Obama’s plan to “rebuild America.”

“Whether we like it or not,” when Obama took office, the U.S. was the world’s leader in manned spaceflight. A year later, he’s outlined a plan that coverts our existing Constellation program into a rescue vehicle, cancels our return to the moon, and focuses more on automatons than men. In a massive step backward, should we wish to reach the International Space Station (two-thirds of which we pay for) we’ll be forced into the embarrassing position of buying passage aboard Russian Soyuz capsules. The future of the U.S. astronaut is now nebulous at best, and platitudes presented in Obama’s April 15th speech do nothing to change that fact. Obama says he wants to see “plans” for a heavy lifting rocket by 2015. He wants to land on an asteroid, and he claims he’ll live to see men orbit mars. Yet for all of the lofty ideas, he offers no concrete goal, no deadlines, nor any real promise to fund anything beyond robots. After 45 years, the nation which put a man on the moon has no concrete vision for the future of man in space. Obama claims he is creating a “transformative agenda” for NASA but, much like his plan to rebuild America, he has offered no specifics. In failing to do so, he is forfeiting our dominance in space and starting us on what astronauts Neil Armstrong, Jim Lovell, and Gene Cernan call “A long downhill slide into mediocrity.”

“Whether we like it or not,” before Obama came to power, we had the best health care on the planet. That’s not to say the system was without flaws, but there’s a reason that world leaders flock to the U.S. for their medical needs. Simply put, if you have a severe illness such as Cancer or Heart Disease, treatment in the United States is more likely to be successful than anywhere else on Earth. Notice that Dems are no longer attempting to make the claim that Obama’s new health care scheme will improve that care or reduce its cost. It’s now widely recognized that, under the President’s plan, premiums will rise, quality will decline, and doctors will abandon the field. Not wanting to be a part of the train wreck, members of government, including the President, have exempted themselves from it. It’s easy to see that, in a few short years, care will be rationed, and treatment survival rates will likely be lowered to match those found in the rest of the world. Dems call the plan a “good first step.”

“Whether we like it or not,” we’re also a financial superpower. Don’t worry, though, the president and Congressional Democrats have a plan to deal with that. While unemployment hovers around 10%, they are hailing the expiration of the Bush tax cuts, and Obama has enacted massive tax increases allegedly designed to pay for his health reforms. They target those who own businesses, create jobs, and power the economy – they also fail to pay for his plan, which we now know is anything but deficit neutral. In addition, Democrats are allowing the reinstatement of the death tax, and are maintaining the U.S. corporate tax rate as the second highest in the world. 47% of Americans pay no taxes whatsoever, while 40% of them receive some kind of government assistance. Those who actually pay are being burdened with increasing federal income taxes, state taxes, sales taxes, usage taxes, and a rapidly growing thirteen trillion dollar deficit. Now, Obama’s minions are beginning to rally support for a National Sales (VAT) Tax, and a set of new, frighteningly powerful, executive powers aimed at “regulating” Wall Street. It’s impossible to believe that Democrats honestly think the current economic situation is sustainable, so the only logical conclusion is that they’re purposely pursuing a plan that will cut the U.S. economy down to a globally respectful, non-shameful size.

In every one of these areas: the nuclear treaty, the gutting of NASA, health care reform, and economic policy, the public’s disdain has been widespread and vocal. According to both Rasmussen and Gallup, the number of Americans who feel America is headed in the right direction is now in the low thirties. Obama’s numbers languish in the mid forties, while congress polls in the low twenties. Regardless, the President and his congressional allies have, time and again, passed legislation against the overwhelming opposition of their constituents.

Obama’s ill-conceived policies damage his country while he travels the world bowing and apologizing. The path he treads will undo this nation one piece at a time, “whether we like it or not.”