By Salena Zito
February 12, 2012
During a drive between the Mon Valley towns of McKeesport and Elizabeth, a man named Ray was overheard calling into a local radio station to talk about the subject of the hour: November's presidential election.

The first thing he said is that he is a Democrat who voted for Barack Obama in 2008. Pressed by the talk-show host, he said he would not vote for Obama this time.
The rest of Ray's answer was not unique or remarkable: Yes, he is a union member. Yes, he wanted Obama to succeed. And, yes, he is very disappointed after giving the president more than enough chances to prove he can lead.
Ray said he had finally given up.
It is a story heard over and over across the country, one that began not long after Obama took office in 2009 and followed a series of heavy-handed moves such as appointing policy "czars" to avoid Senate confirmation fights and a lack of transparency with the press and the public (a list too long to elaborate) despite vows to the contrary.
Stimulus signs that dotted highways after a trillion-dollar federal spending spree became signs to mock when the economy failed to improve -- and guys like Ray began to detach.
Following the messy passage of Obama's health-care bill in 2010, the disconnect between him and Americans escalated -- evidenced by a massive sweep of Democrats from state legislatures, governors' offices and the U.S. House of Representatives.