Where the heck are we?

In the beginning he sounded like he knew something.

President Barack Obama took office telling us he had a plan to guide us out of the economic wilderness. The road would be hard, but if we pulled together we'd get there.

That was exactly two years, six months and something like 11 days ago, depending upon when you are reading this.

In that time, if President Obama has proven anything about the economy, it is that he doesn't know jack about how we got here and he doesn't have the faintest idea how to get us out.

He's the Chief Wild Eagle of our time.

For those of you unfamiliar with that early television history reference, Chief Wild Eagle (played by New York actor Frank Dekova) was the leader of the Hekawi tribe in "F Troop."

When asked how the Hekawi people got their name he said:

"Many moons ago tribe move west because Pilgrims ruin neighborhood. Tribe travel west, over country and mountains and wild streams, then come big day ... tribe fall over cliff, that when Hekawi get name. Medicine man say to my ancestor, 'I think we lost. Where the heck are we?' "

We're Obama's 2011 "Hekawi" -- We're a people falling off the cliff, more lost today than when we started.

Almost everybody's getting poorer, especially minorities. The wealth gap between whites and those of color has grown to its widest level since the government began keeping tabs on the statistic.

Roderick Harrison, a former chief of racial statistics at the Census Bureau, says that the recession "pushes us back to what the Kerner Commission characterized as 'two societies, separate and unequal.' "

Thank you for that, President Obama. Thanks for nothin', Harry Reid. Tip of the hat, Nancy Pelosi. You're a peach.

Now, I know that the Obama/Reid/Pelosi crowd wants to blame former President Bush for all of this, like they successfully did in the 2008 election. And if they can't make that stick, they look to pin the blame on the tea party. Or it's the fault of private jet owners, big oil companies, Libya, Wal-Mart, global warming and the infestation of golf courses by California Barking Spiders.

You name it and the lousy economy is anybody's fault but President Obama's. He started out as "The One" and now he's morphed into "The Blameless One."

Well, as anyone who has ever seen my poofy-headed miniature poodle, Miss Ruby, can attest -- that dog don't hunt.

After 2 1/2 years, the nation's poverty rate stands at 14.3 percent. The working-age poor number the highest since the 1960s and it surely will get worse before Obama gets done. New numbers come out in September.

Obama hasn't led us out of the economic wilderness, he has led us farther up the proverbial creek without a paddle.

In a far less funny way, President Obama sounds more like Chief Wild Eagle every day. But at least when Chief Wild Eagle would talk through his hat using nonsensical statements like, "Teepee never empty when frost on nose of buffalo" you'd laugh when he added: "It lose in translation."

Nobody can afford to laugh these days at President Obama's economic nonsense.

When he tells us that the economy is getting better, we look at each other and ask, "How was the 'Summer of Recovery' for you?"

When he tells us that federally subsidized "green" energy projects will fix the future, we curse the price of gasoline, which has doubled on Obama's watch.

When he says that we spent a trillion dollars on "shovel-ready" projects to hold unemployment to under 8 percent, we shrug our shoulders knowing unemployment has long surpassed that mark and if we're not careful that shovel is going to hit us on the rump on the way out the door.

And when he tells us that he as president must spend more than we as a country make to balance the national budget, we give ourselves a collective sigh and realize:

Chief Barack Obama's leadership isn't funny anymore.

Stop telling us about the frost on the nose of the buffalo.

Where the heck are we?

Sherman Frederick is a columnist for Stephens Media.