Michael Medved says it’s “the creation of vast new groups of dependent Americans who will comprise an unassailable new coalition that will enjoy iron control of our politics for a generation or more.”

Actually, that’s heartening. At least Medved expects coming generations of American politics. My vote goes to the inevitable vitiation of American power worldwide.

At the last debate, Barack Obama was asked if he believes in American exceptionalism. That a presidential candidate needs to be asked this is the most shocking “historic first” of this election. He answered in the affirmative, but in typical Obama fashion, this was the “rein in the radical roots” answer that came far too late. In February, Obama said he’d meet with America’s enemies because not to do so, “reinforces the sense that we stand above the rest of the world at this point in time.” I’ll take Sarah Palin’s Afghani word-salad over that line any day of the week. You can memorize the ethnic make-up of South Waziristan at any age, but if you’re a 47-year-old American senator who hasn’t yet learned that the U.S. does stand above the rest of the world, your time’s up.

So is it possible to believe in American exceptionalism while denouncing American exceptionalism? In Obamaland it is. Depending on what page you open your world atlas to, Obama is viewed as a fashion trend, a pushover, or an agent of American contrition. And depending on what day you catch Obama, he’s Jimmy Carter, McCain-come-lately, or some incoherent amalgam of both. First he’d talk to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad without preconditions, then he wouldn’t, then he deconstructed the word preconditions into unintelligible oblivion. First he denounced the troop surge in Iraq, then he praised it, then he said he didn’t regret opposing the successful measure. First he said he’d immediately “end” the war in Iraq, then he said he’d take the advice of commanders on the ground, now he says he’ll end it while taking the advice of commanders on the ground. First he was against the missile defense shield in Eastern Europe, then he was for it, now on his official website, he promises to “prudently explore” the “possibility of deploying” a missile defense system in Eastern Europe.

There is Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Russia, North Korea and more. And then there’s the disturbing instincts and rudderless foreign policy of Barack Obama. Joe Biden talks about Obama being “tested” by foreign regimes. The problem here is that it’s your first response that counts — not your best one. The world, unlike the American media, will not give Obama open-book do-overs.