In a recent campaign ad for President Obama, actor Morgan Freeman intones, "Every President inherits challenges. Few have faced so many." This excuse, repeated for four long, grueling years, is untrue. Too many of us have forgotten that numerous Presidents faced challenges similar to if not greater than those Obama faced.

George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison. James Monroe, Andrew Jackson, Martin Van Buren, James Buchanan, U.S. Grant, Grover Cleveland, Theodore Roosevelt amd Woodrow Wilson all governed during major panics, recessions or depressions before the Great Depression. The 10 Presidents from Jackson through Lincoln faced serious threats of secession, and Andrew Johnson, Grant and Rutherford Hayes had reconstruction to manage.

And that does not even get to all the wars. Obama has had challenges, to be sure, but they were surmountable with the right policies.

Obama's excuse-making is intended to distract from the obvious fact that his policies have failed. They did not fail because of circumstances or because Republicans held one third of the elected branches of government for half of his presidency. They failed because they were bad policies.

Four more years of bad policies will bring four more years of bad outcomes and four more years of excuses. We are tired of the excuses. It's time for results. It's time to give Mitt Romney a try.