Afghanistan: Then how much support will there be for the war in Afghanistan when it costs $5 billion a month?

He's no moderate: In 2005, Obama could have joined the Gang of 14 -- the group of seven Democrats and seven Republicans (including McCain) who worked out a compromise to successfully limit judicial filibusters -- but he didn't. In his memoir "The Audacity of Hope," Obama explained his decision thus: "Given the profiles of some of the judges involved, it was hard to see what judicial nominee might be so much worse as to constitute an 'extraordinary circumstance' worthy of filibuster." Moderate? Hardly. Obama even voted opposite 78 senators who confirmed the nomination of Chief Justice John Roberts.

Results don't matter: Obama served on the board of directors of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge from 1995 to 2002. The challenge spent some $49 million to reform Chicago public schools -- with nothing to show for it. According to a 2003 audit, "There were no statistically significant differences between Annenberg schools and non-Annenberg schools in rates of achievement gain."

In his first memoir, "Dreams from My Father," Obama writes about his days as a community organizer and of his efforts to fight inner-city crime and improve public housing. He barely addresses whether a project met its stated goal of reducing crime or improving housing. To him, the effort worked if participants felt good about being organized.

The pander problem: You see it in his call for a 90-day moratorium on housing foreclosures -- which he rightly scoffed when Hillary Rodham Clinton first proposed it. Sounds good. Who cares if it works? Ditto his promised 5 million "green-collar" jobs.

One-party rule: With Democrats running the House and Senate, an Obama White House threatens to bust the budget, just as one-party rule bloated federal spending from 2001-2006 with Republicans in charge of both Congress and the executive branch. Already Obama's proposed stimulus package has grown from $60 billion to $175 billion, while D.C. Democrats now are talking about a $300 billion package. See what happens if he is elected.