Republican Newt Gingrich published an opinion piece just yesterday and among things discussed were his ideas as to what went wrong for the Democrats. He said, "the country was not voting for a left-wing agenda in 2008… it was voting out a Republican leadership it deemed unable to govern effectively." (http://www.sphere.com/opinion/article/opinion-memo-to-obama-govern-as-you-promised/19326063) As though the truth were if Americans had their druthers they would always choose a Republican. That is hugely presumptive. Someone predicted not so long ago a "permanent Republican majority". We all know how that turned out.

The fact is there are more registered Democrats than Republicans nationwide and that is not a result of Dick Cheney's advice to George W. Bush. That does not mean they would choose a Democrat either. The country is becoming more and more independent all the time. The Tea Party is an example of that, and even they do not speak for all of America's independents. Most Americans simply want what they believe speaks most clearly to where they are and where they wish to go.

Gingrich also said, "the American people thought they were voting… in 2008 (for) a moderate who wanted to bring transparency to government and work with leaders of both parties on common-sense reform." (http://www.sphere.com/opinion/article/opinion-memo-to-obama-govern-as-you-promised/19326063) That's true. They wanted to feel good about government again and the Bush administration took us away from that by ignoring the wishes and values of Americans and closing their ears to alternative opinions. But they were voting for change.

When president Obama set out to repair our image abroad that message of hope and change radiated from him and was projected in front of his every step. He was successful, not merely due to his own inertia but more because of the trust placed in him by people whose minds he sought to convince. It is that trust he needs to focus on again. In the global community it was in Americas leadership and to an extent our ruined image.

Here in America it is the main thing on people's minds when he took office and now. That is the economy. Most sectors are recovering well except the one people feel the most - jobs. After that it's the wars and national security. Next were the many promises for change which never materialized, but just seemed to get pushed aside or even dismissed. All one has to do is go back and look at the list.

It just all got eclipsed by one single solitary issue which Republicans and moneyed interests were successful at dragging out and souring public opinion on. No matter what his opponents wish to say the fact is he won and overwhelmingly with not only economic issues at the core, but also a move away from and accounting for what happened during the previous administration that got us here.

Sure, opponents will say Americans never wanted health reform, but support was high for it when it was first announced. It went low around August when huge Health Industry dollars started churning out television ads against it which proponents did not have the money to challenge. Health care reform is a great idea and if not Republicans would not have pushed so hard for it in 2006 and successfully passed it. But they did it quickly with a midnight session finally passing it at around 3 A.M. and most importantly they stuck together. Democrats weren't so good at sticking together and allowed it to get dragged out for months killing their own bill.

Perhaps next time before such a large measure is attempted legislation making a more fair and balanced system for the competing interests of the ordinary and moneyed will be put in place. Otherwise the moneyed interests will buy everything and take out TV ads saying anything less is communism. With no laws preventing that there will be nothing keeping them honest. In fact they are going to do the same in the 2010 elections if his party does not do something first.

Either way for the president that same passion from the start must be redirected at jobs, jobs, jobs and that isn't stressing it enough. If he wishes to get his finger back on that pulse that's where the start is. Next, there must be serious consequences for those responsible for sitting on information that never made it up the chain leading to both Ft. Hood and the Richard Reid style Christmas bombing which apparently no one at the CIA learned lessons from. There are always complaints from people in the intelligence field about not coming forward for fear of repercussions. Perhaps if there are severe penalties handed out for doing the opposite and set as policy people will be afraid not to.

Health care will not kill the president and his party although losing seats in the initial mid-term following the recent changing of the guard at the top should be expected. It happened to the two most successful and popular presidents in recent times Reagan and Clinton. If they wish to minimize that they should be out campaigning starting right now every weekend non-stop letting people know they are sorry for letting people down and about what they are going to do next. In politics people have been re-elected after some of the worst public scandals in history. It's not impossible to stem the tide, but they can't pull a Virginia, New jersey or Massachusetts last week "oh is there an election happening" yawn and expect to win.

But, job hemorrhaging and not going in the right direction quickly will sting Democrats worse than is necessary. Newt Gingrich suggested the president should have his next policy suggestions come from Republicans. (http://www.sphere.com/opinion/article/opinion-memo-to-obama-govern-as-you-promised/19326063)

That makes partial sense, but Republicans haven't exactly been looking from within their party for their cues recently. What makes more sense is having the next steps come from all sides. Certainly Democrats and Republicans, but also sitting down with a consortium of representatives of the Tea Party, Libertarians, Conservative Party and the Green party for example. Make it more than symbolic and include that information in legislation. Let's go forward with all sought and try to get back on track that way. Get all voices in. Go forward.

To read about my inspiration for this article go to www.lawsuitagainstuconn.com.