In case you haven't noticed, there is an election campaign going on in the United States. It hasn't officially started, but the job applicants are started to line up and there is some jostling for position going on as they prepare to take theri shot at the brass ring.

There is big controversy over the missing birth certificate of US President, Barack Obama, which leads to questions whether he is eligible to remain in office. In the President's home state of Hawaii, there are strict privacy laws in place which prohibits discloser of an individuals private documentation without the persons consent, including birth certificates. Skeptics question whether Obama was born in Kenya, the birthplace of his father.

It’s incredible, really. The president of the United States can’t bring himself to talk about democracy in the Middle East. He can dance around it, use euphemisms, throw out words like “freedom” and “tolerance” and “non-violent” and especially “reform,” but he can’t say the one word that really matters: democracy.

How did this happen? After all, in his famous 2009 Cairo speech to the Muslim world, Obama spoke the word loudly and clearly – at least once.