Help, help, help!

So how's that stimulus package working out for you, Elkhart?

"To be fair, he didn't get us into all of this, but for me, I also haven't seen any signs that he's getting us out of it,” said Ms. Hartman, who lost her job in February, just after Mr. Obama last visited to build support for his $787 billion stimulus package.

Terry Maddox, another factory worker (who still has her job) sounded impatient. “He's given to the car makers, the banks — but what about the regular people?” said Ms. Maddox, who is 50. “All I see around here is empty houses — a ghost town.”

How did we go from being a nation of pioneers and entrepreneurs to being a collection of needy whiners who look to Washington in general and the president in particular to fix everything? Because there have been so many politicians (Obama is merely the most recent) who encouraged such thinking and enacted policies that ensured it.