Not to belabor the Conrad Black subject but he is an astute observer of the U.S. situation from his enforced vacation home in Florida. Here is his take today on the Obama attempts to stimulate the economy. For those who aren't aware of him, Bob Rae was the socialist premier of the Canadian province of Ontario during a severe downturn who spent the province into massive debt with very little to show for it. Years later he has come to admit that his efforts were badly misdirected. It seems to me that Conrad sums it up quite accurately.

At some point, President Obama will have a Bob Rae epiphany and change course. This will be the litmus test of this very attractive and, in many ways, refreshing leader. If he is not the astute candidate who won the nomination over the Clintons and the election over the Republicans, but rather the stubborn and campy leftist we have seen for the last six weeks, championing patronage as stimulus, tax increases, organized labour, green cars and a Rube Goldberg medical plan, he will be a one-term president. If Robert Reich, the former policy guru of the Clinton administration, speaks for this President in celebrating the end of Reaganism, Obama will go to perdition without slowing Reagan's march to Mount Rushmore.

If he changes direction quickly enough, and relies on Paul Volcker, Larry Summers and Timothy Geithner for economic advice, he could be a continuator of the great and politically successful leaders he has evoked, Lincoln, Roosevelt and Reagan. If not, he will rather resemble the failed one-term presidents who preceded them, James Buchanan, Herbert Hoover and Jimmy Carter.

The United States has always had strong leadership when it needed it. This is such a time.