A million years ago there was a 7Up advertising campaign which defined the soft drink as “The Un-Cola” suggesting that 7Up was significantly different from colas. Barack Obama has shown himself in the 5 years of his presidency to be the “un-president.” Up until now, all presidents of the United States have demonstrated leadership to one degree or another, Obama has NEVER led. In fact he himself once coined his approach as “leading from behind.” Leading from behind is an oxymoron, like saying “the same difference” or “loud silence.”

Obama has attempted to keep himself as far out of the loop of responsibility as possible. Unlike President Truman, the buck never stops with Obama; it’s always with someone else. Whether it’s the IRS targeting conservatives scandal, the killing of our ambassador in Benghazi, the AP phone records scandal, the ATF Fast and Furious scheme, or government seizure of citizens’ e-mails and phone records, he always says the same thing, “I don’t know anything about this, but I will get to the bottom of it.” He never does. He never knows from nothing and he never takes responsibility for anything that his administration does.

He claimed that the sequester was not his idea, although he was the one who first suggested it. Regarding the government shutdown and the debt ceiling crisis, he refuses to negotiate with Republicans in Congress and claims it is they who refuse to sit down and talk. “The way to resolve this is to sit down and have a conversation to resolve our differences,” House Speaker John Boehner said after meeting with his party’s caucus. Obama called the speaker less than an hour later to “reiterate that he won’t negotiate on a government-funding bill or debt-limit increase,” said Brendan Buck, a Boehner spokesman.

Obama claimed in a news conference regarding Syria’s use of chemical weapons last month, “I didn’t set a red line. The world set a red line.” Yet in his very own words spoken to reporters on August of 2012 he said, “We have been very clear to the Assad regime, but also to other players on the ground, that a red line for us is we start seeing a whole bunch of chemical weapons moving around or being utilized. That would change my calculus. That would change my equation.” This lie was pointed out in The Washington Post, usually a pro Obama newspaper.

He ultimately backed down from his red line tough guy rhetoric when it became obvious that he either couldn’t or wouldn’t make a case to the American people for going to war with Syria. Again, a lack of leadership and his unwillingness to take responsibility for his own actions. Obama always seems to be looking for the easy out of any situation and decision.

An interesting comparison to George W. Bush was made recently in an article by foreign affairs analyst and former aide to Margaret Thatcher, Niles Gardiner. He wrote, “George W. Bush was a conviction president on foreign policy matters, driven by a clear sense of the national interest. President Bush emphatically made his case to the American people and to the world, explaining why he believed the use of force was necessary, and dozens of countries decided to follow him.

“In the case of Barack Obama, whose foreign policy has been weak-kneed, confused, and strategically incoherent, the president hasn’t effectively made the case for military intervention in Syria, and has made no serious effort to cultivate support both at home and abroad. President Bush may not have been greatly loved on the world stage, but he was respected by America’s allies, and feared by his enemies. In marked contrast, Obama hasn’t generated a lot of respect abroad, and he certainly isn’t feared.”

So why is it that Barack Obama is not a leader? Maybe it’s because he wasn’t trained to be. He never studied business or learned leadership abilities, he studied law but with an eye to social justice and community organizing. He studied Saul Alinsky”s Rules for Radicals, the textbook on community organizing in which Alinsky, an anti-establishment leftist, urged radicals to make common cause with anyone to further their ends. Obama was mentored by Frank Marshall Davis, an avowed Communist and political activist. In short, Obama learned Marxist idealism and theory not pragmatism and how to deal with the real world as most presidents need to do.

Thanks to Obama we are a weaker nation than we were 5 years ago. Our national debt is far worse, our prestige on the world’s stage has eroded, too many people aren’t working, we have many more people dependent on government welfare and food stamps than ever before, our immigration laws have pretty much been decimated, and our freedoms have been lessened. ObamaCare is a big step toward complete government control over the citizens.

But if there’s one thing Obama has demonstrated, it is that you don’t have to have leadership ability to change things drastically. He has. As he promised in his campaign speech, he has “fundamentally transformed the United States of America.” And that too makes him a president like none other that has served before him.