Reach for the Stars…Be All You Can be…Winning Isn’t Everything, It’s The Only Thing…Nobody remembers who finishes second...

They are familiar clichés, but there was a time that they were for many, words to live by, words to inspire, and this week, I’m wondering what ever happened to the uncompromising American drive to succeed; whether it’s a straight A report card, a sports championship, or climbing the corporate ladder all the way to the top rung.

It occurs to me that we have become a nation that’s satisfied with mediocrity. One is merely a number, not a distinction. The other day, the New York Mets released a player named Jason Bay. I’m not sure Bay, who was a superstar with the Red Sox a few years ago, had a batting average that matched his weight this past season. In what they believe is addition by subtraction - the Mets cut Bay by cutting him a check…for about 21 million dollars. Mets fans may want to ponder that, next time they shell out 40 bucks for a bad seat and 9 dollars for a watery draft beer.

The worst performing stock in the Dow is Hewlett Packard. CEO Meg Whitman’s earning 16 million dollars to manage a company that has shareholders seething.

In Sacramento, it seems we collectively tolerate the antics of the Maloofs. The team’s lousy, but they are the only major league team in town..

In California, the democrat-led government has run a multi-billion dollar deficit and voters rewarded the party with more assembly and senate seats, and a new tax package which will give the Dems more money to spend. And waste…

We return nearly intact a congress that has done little in recent years but force socialized medicine down our collective throats while running up trillions in debt.

And then there’s Mr. Obama, re-elected on an abysmal record with nearly as many people voting to re-elect him as there are Americans on food stamps.

Can you blame George Bush in your second term too…?