Guest Blogger Joan—she is no longer naïve, believes she must speak out.

“For a number of years, I allowed myself to naively believe that individual citizens couldn't make any difference in our country's destiny and that surely those in charge had our country's best interests at heart and would take care of things. I believed that all the heated political debate was useless and that no one was going to change anyone else's opinions on any political topic. While I still believe that last sentence, I have finally grown up enough to realize that a responsible, patriotic citizen cannot sit on the sidelines and watch his/her country be totally destroyed without at least speaking up and taking a stand, for whatever it might be worth. We have elected leaders who do not share typical, traditional American values and who do not have the experience necessary for the job. We have elected leaders who have no depth of character from which to draw for decision-making. This link is to an article that gives a morsel of hope to those of us who realize the jeopardy our country is in and hope to avoid losing our treasured way of life."

If the Nixon era should have taught politicians anything, it is that trust and credibility are essential to the presidency. Nixon's downfall was not so much in the petty thievery of his campaign researchers; it was the lying and cover-up that brought him down. With Obama, abuse of trust is the theme running through all the scandals. Ironically, the shear number of scandals is helping the president in the short term - there is scattershot investigative coverage rather than focused probing. The cumulative effect, though, is beginning to show. Americans bought into the president's campaign image of "hope and change," but lately, they instinctively know that "where's there is smoke, there's fire" and the "smoke" of all the scandals seems to come directly from fires at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. In the Internet era, doubletalk doesn't work; there've been too many side-by-side comparisons of truth versus White House spin.

Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/2013/06/obamas_loss_of_trust_and_credibility.html#ixzz2WaDlKgdu