Following the 2008 election Americans learned a great deal more about the man they elected president than they knew about him when they voted for him. The 2012 election will tell us more about ourselves than the man we elect as our president, no matter who he is.

In 2008, Americans elected the first Black American president, knowing relatively little about him. He was young, attractive, and articulate. He was a family man with an accomplished wife and two lovely children. Beyond that, his record in public life was short and his past sketchy.

Conservative Republicans raised questions about his 20 years in Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s black-liberation-theology church, his associations with people like Tony Rezko, Bill Ayers, and other people of questionable character, but the mainstream media largely ignored those stories and delved little into Barack Obama’s background, while many Democrats accused those who raised questions about him of racism.

Enthralled by his oratory and the historic nature of his presidency, voters tended to superimpose on Barack Obama their own vision of his politics and how he would govern. Evidence to the contrary, notwithstanding, most saw him as a moderate who would reach across the aisle and govern from the center, unifying the country and leading it out of its financial woes.

Three years later we now know a great deal about Barack Obama. He is the most liberal/progressive man ever elected to the office of President of the United States. His vision for America is to remake it into a social democracy on the European model with the federal government intimately involved in every aspect of daily life. He has increased government spending enormously, funneling billions to unions, Democratic constituencies, and companies owned by contributors. Once the U.S. military is extracted from both Iraq and Afghanistan, he intends to restrain U.S. military capabilities so as to prevent it from involvement in future ground wars abroad. In short, he wants to do what he said he intended to do and few took literally—fundamentally transform America.

Whether you believe that President Obama deliberately and maliciously intends to eviscerate America, that he’s just incompetent and in over his head, or that he’s simply attempting to implement a mainstream liberal agenda that you support, there is little doubt which direction he is leading the country.

If Barack Obama is elected to a second term he may or may not be restricted by a Republican controlled House and Senate. Nevertheless, as he demonstrated with recent “recess” appointments and with the nomination of liberal Supreme Court justices, he will retain enormous control over the U.S. government and the course of American history; and he will continue moving America in the direction he wants to take it.

If a Republican is elected president, on the other hand, it is not difficult to predict the kinds of policies and appointments they will make. All the current declared Republican candidates are known quantities and mainstream Republican politicians. All have written and spoken extensively on the broad spectrum of policy issues.

Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, and Rick Santorum, one of which is likely to be the Republican nominee, are moderate to staunch conservatives. They advocate lower taxes, less intrusive government regulation, traditional conservative Republican social values, and a strong national defense. They may or may not be able to restore American prosperity and global access and influence to what it was, but they will appoint officials and judges and purse policies much different than President Obama’s.

American voters will have a clear choice between two very different candidates and two very different visions of America. We hear that America is a center-right country; this by no means, however, makes it a foregone conclusion which candidate and vision Americans will choose.

President Obama will do his utmost to convince voters that the Republican candidate is an extremist and electing him would mean disaster for the country. 2012 will likely be the dirtiest, most negative presidential campaign in modern history; and we can’t expect objectivity from the mainstream media. Nevertheless, as in all presidential campaigns, how the candidates conduct themselves and react to their opponents will go a long way toward determining the outcome.

In 2012, however, there will be another dynamic in play that works to Democrats’ advantage. The election overwhelmingly will be about the state of the U.S. economy, deficit and entitlement spending, and voter’s perceptions of their personal economic security. Large numbers of American voters abhor out of control government spending and deficits. Nevertheless, American voters, like European voters, will have to decide what individual sacrifices they are willing to make for the good of their country.

Will the majority of Americans vote Republican and decide that less government spending, entitlement and tax reform, and less government involvement in their everyday lives makes them more secure. Or will they vote Democratic resisting these changes, having become used to an "entitlement society" and the expanding role of government?

Sixteen percent of Americans now receive government payroll and benefit checks every month. Fifteen percent are on food stamps. These percentages have increased dramatically in recent years and continue to grow. The American population is aging and a large number of Americans who aren’t already on Social Security and Medicare soon will be. As a result of the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act many unemployed people now can receive up to 99 weeks of unemployment benefits. More than 50 percent of Americans pay no federal income tax.

How would Americans respond today, I wonder, to the line in John F. Kennedy’s inauguration speech 51 years ago—“Ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country"? I fear they would respond much differently than they did in January 1961.

Barring a repeat of the 2000 election experience, on November 7 Americans will know who our president will be for the next four years. We’ll also know a lot more about ourselves and what kind of country we choose to live in and bequeath to our children. Have we become addicted to big government? Do we seek to emulate the failed social-democratic European model? Do we no longer see the United States as a superpower with global responsibilities? We’ll find out.