Hear the audio version here (segments older than 3 weeks may be unavailable)

As I was preparing for our big intra-family Super Bowl party this last Sunday afternoon, I admit that I totally missed President Obama's interview with Matt Lauer.  I don't regret that a bit.  As you can pretty much expect from here on out, all of those "presidential interviews or events" are going to be re-election speeches - free air time for the president to campaign.

And that's certainly what this one was.  But in the course of his interview, the President said something that I don't want you to miss.  It is so fundamental, so revealing about who this guy is and how he just doesn't come close to understanding what America has always been.  Here's the clip:

Matt Lauer, NBC: Maybe the better is question is 'how will you spend the money?' By all accounts you can raise a lot of money for this campaign. Some people say up to a billion dollars.

We've just seen in Florida, on the Republican side, a lot of money spent. About a 100% of it spent on extremely negative personal ads. If you raise a billion dollars to keep this job, can we expect the same kind of negativity coming from that money?

President Barack Obama: What I can tell you is that in 2008 part of the reason that we were successful is that we ran an affirmative campaign about my vision for where the United States should go. And I think what Americans what to hear more than anything else is 'how are you going to help me right now?'

If they're hearing a persuasive argument about we are going to recreate a solid path for middle-class success in this country then I think I'll win regardless of the negative ads.

I think so many people probably got hung up on the first part of the answer where he talks about his "vision for where the United States should go" that they miss the important part.  They get caught up thinking things like, "was this it? Was this your vision?  Massive unemployment, stagnating economic growth, a foreign affairs train wreck, the most food stamps distributed in history?  Was that the vision?" 

And I will admit that the first time I watched this, that's what I thought.  But the important line - the revealing one - the one you can't miss - is the one that followed.  The President of the United States suggests that what Americans want to hear more than anything else is how the President and the government will improve their lives.

If that doesn't reveal everything about this administration, about this failed presidency, I don't know what will.  Barack Obama earnestly and honestly believes that you and your family and your neighbors sit around just asking and whining "what will my government do for me?"  He honestly believes that's how average Americans think and operate.  I certainly don't.  And if that's what a majority of Americans think than I really am misjudging this country.

I know that there is an ever-increasing amount of dependency on the government.  And that's exactly what liberals are desiring.  They are the Party of government, and so if more people become dependent upon government, that guarantees them power.  It's what they're after.  But please tell me that we aren't to that point yet.  Please tell me that we aren't that far gone.

But the president believes that we are, that you are.  It is reflective of the entire ideology of the left: that you can't survive, and you certainly can't thrive without his assistance.  This is the fundamental change Obama promised us.  He thinks we're there.  He thinks that the idea of self-empowerment, self-determination, self-reliance, rugged individualism is now in the past, replaced by the Euro-socialist dependency model.