On October 5, 1947, in the first televised White House address, President Truman asked Americans to refrain from eating meat on Tuesdays and poultry on Thursdays to help stockpile grain for starving people in Europe.

Can you imagine President Obama being able to televise a message which asked Americans to refrain from eating meat/poultry to help the starving people in Africa?

We certainly live in a different world. One in which there seems to be no regard for ethical right or social conscience, but all purpose directed to making the President fail and rejoicing in his setbacks (see commentary on the IOC's decision to reject Chicago as a venue for the Olympics).

"Cheers erupted" at the headquarters of the conservative Weekly Standard, according to a blog post by a member of the magazine's staff, with the headline "Obama loses! Obama loses!" Rush Limbaugh declared himself "gleeful." "World Rejects Obama," gloated the Drudge Report. And so on, according to Paul Krugman of the New York Times.

We're in an era of politics of revenge, of fail, of slash-and-burn, regardless of the harm to the country.