As follow up to my previous post which reviewed Obama's economic plan on a point by point basis, let's talk a bit about Leadership. What is it going to take to lead this country into the future and does Obama have it?

What are, to date, the two times he has demonstrated leadership that he most likes to talk about?

1) Community Organization. I am no stranger to trying to get a group of people to organize under a common banner, and I know that doing so is far easier when those people all are of similar conviction. The leadership of our country requires something far more difficult -- the amalgamation of many opinions. Please correct me if I am wrong but it appears to me that Obama's community organization involved like-minded liberal academics coming together to try to make things happen for the under-privileged. Leading our country will be nothing like that.

2) Leading his own campaign. Obama has had the benefit of huge amounts of private money in order to lead his campaign. And that, my friends, is exactly how he would lead his presidency -- tax and spend. Except this time it will be your own money taken from your hard-earned wages. Or it will be money taken from "evil" businesses -- the businesses that employ you. Taking from them really encourages them to pay you well and create new jobs, doesn't it?

Those are the two points that HE makes about his leadership. Let me tell you what I SEE about his leadership.

Leadership involves moving people from their agenda to your agenda. It involves putting forth a vision and geting people aligned under that vision. It involves listening to differing opinions, considering those opinions, and charting a course. It involves being able to honestly evaluate your results, admit wrong choices if they've been made, and get people to accept change to a better path.

Here's what I see in Obama.

He has worked consistently within a group that already shared his opinions. If he wants to try to shift people to his opinions, he makes promises that make no sense (see my earlier post on his economic plan). He has undoubtedly made mistakes but yet I have never heard him admit to one. (McCain, on the other hand, has been very quick to say when he has screwed up.) He has done nothing to help me, as a business owner, see why his agenda would help me create economic development -- the stated number one goal of my business.

A true leader must be able to not only lead others but lead himself. And here is Senator Obama with so many skeletons in his closet of people he associated with and a close "Auntie" who lived here illegally and gave illegally to his campaign. If you are seriously thinking about running for the President of the United States, would you not be smart enough to absolutely not have these skeletons in your closet and, if you accidentally did, to own up to them, admit your mistakes, and change for the future? I cannot believe that someone who really wants to lead this country would allow himself to have the skeletons that Obama has.

I have before called Obama a "rock star candidate" and what I mean by that is a candidate who thinks he is above the rest of the world. A candidate who is so taken by his own little world that he assumes the rest of the world will follow him. A candidate who makes no apologies, accepts no responsibility, but runs on ego and promises that don't make sense because his followers are so enthralled they don't see through it.

It's a shame. I hope America wakes up by Tuesday morning and sees Sen Obama for what he really is. If not, he will simply hang out with his cronies who control Congress and they will do whatever they please -- no evaluation, ne regrets, no apologies. He has demonstrated again and again that, even when forced and confronted with his own skeletons, he only makes excuses.

Senator Obama is no leader. Not today and probably not ever.