Well 20 or 30 years ago, the Soviet Union was still in existence and the Friedman and Zakaria types were then telling us to get our act together or we would be overtaken by the Ruskies.
It's kind of like Obama telling the school kids that they need to fix America... wait, that's Obama's job isn't it?? Yeah, wow, great speakers, I'd like to know the exit strategy for the war on poverty and the one on drugs... talk about Afghanistan being permanently dysfunctional... Speaking of which, Afghanistan is where guys come and they deal in weapons and on the return trip they deal in drugs and when they get back home they deal in political power... our troops will slowly, have been already maybe, reduced to guarding the Poppy fields and the trade routes.. it's not like that's not a cool job but why at taxpayer's expense?
This is a simple fix: term limits for everyone, not just the Pres. Too many rely on the Gov't dole and all the perks to go with it to WANT to make any changes. This is one of those times when fresh voices, not the occasional one but real fresh voices, are needed. You can't change the system until you change the players. C'mon, Strom Thurman, 99 y.o. senator from 1956 to 2003, or Robert Byrd, 91 y.o. Senator from 1959 to present! As just a few examples.