Prior to his election to the presidency in 2008, Barack Obama and his supporters made us several promises.

First, they promised us that if Obama is elected, American race relations will improve dramatically.  After all, the office of the presidency is the most visible, and arguably the most powerful, office on the planet.  If a black man occupied it, it would be obvious for all with eyes to see that whatever obstacles their color once threw up for blacks had been safely relegated to the dustbin of history.

If Obama is elected, Obama enthusiasts continued, the white American majority will have redeemed itself.  It is the election of Obama—and nothing more—that would open the portal to the promised land of a post-racial era.

This is what we were promised.

Another promise, closely linked to this first, pertained to the unity generally that Obama would allegedly bring to the country upon his election. 

His presidency would be post-racial, yes; but it would also be post-partisan, or trans-partisan.  There would be no blue-state America or red-state America, as Obama famously said.  There would be only one America—and he would be the President of all Americans.  The country was more divided under George W. Bush and Republican rule than at any other time, we were told. Obama would heal our wounds and unify us.

Thirdly, Obama would make us loved throughout the world once again.  He would restore our damaged global image, especially throughout the Middle East.  During a visit to Israel, then Senator Obama went so far as to vow to “bring peace to the Middle East,” if he should become the president.

Each of his major promises Obama has shattered into a gazillion pieces.

The country is at least as divided today as it has ever been.  An impartial spectator would be in no danger of confusing our present state with anything that could plausibly be described as “unity.”  For that matter, neither would Obama or any of his fellow partisans be in any such danger.  That they are forever charging Republicans with “obstructionism” proves that even they know that they can’t so much as pretend to have unified the country.

Have we entered a post-racial millennium under Obama?  Not even close.  The orgies of black violence—euphemistically characterized in terms of “flash mobs” by a politically correct press—that have erupted throughout the nation over the last couple of years is one proof of this. 

Another is the alleged rise in white “hate” groups that has occurred during the course of Obama’s tenure in office.

Tellingly, it is the leftist, Democratic-friendly Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) that has been beating the drum on this last score.  It is the SPLC that warns us of an explosion of “white supremacist groups” that has allegedly been ignited by the election of a black man to the office of the presidency.

The SPLC reports: “Strands of the radical right—hate groups, nativist extremist groups and Patriot organizations—increased from 1,753 groups in 2009 to 2,145 in 2010, a 22 percent rise.  That followed a 2008-09 increase of 40 percent.”

What about America’s standing in the world?  Has our President, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, let us not forget, proven to be a force for peace, whether in the Middle East or, for that matter, anywhere else?

As anti-American protests now spread to 21 (and counting) countries throughout the Islamic world, it is painfully obvious that the man whose mixed racial ancestry and Islamic name were supposed to smooth relations between East and West has done nothing of the kind.  Obama’s conduct toward the Islamic world has actually made our relationship with it worse than ever—no mean feat considering that things were never good to begin with.

For the first time since September 11, 2001, Americans were murdered by Islamic terrorists on American soil.  This happened during the Fort Hood massacre of 2009.  And it happened again on the second 9/11, September 11, 2012, when an American ambassador and three others were slaughtered by an angry mob that stormed our embassy inLibya.

Both attacks occurred under Obama’s watch.

Now, the Islamic world is on fire as those whose pro-American sentiments Obama was supposed to compel attack American embassies wherever they can be found.

Things are actually worse for Obama than I make them sound.

Not only has he failed entirely to deliver his promises of bi-partisanship, interracial harmony, and world peace.  The price of Obama’s first term seems to have been unyielding partisanship, greater racial animosity, and greater anti-Americanism.

This all needs to be born in mind on Election Day.