Well, you’ve been on a fast train and it’s going off the rails
And you can’t come back, can’t come back together again
And you start breaking down in the pouring rain
Well, you’ve been on a fast train
— Van Morrison

YEARS AGO, IT MAY HAVE BEEN DURING the first Clinton presidential run, I was in the living room of our dear friends Sandy and Felix when the conversation turned to the election. At the time, I had never voted the GOP ticket, and Felix had likely always canceled my vote out.

I mentioned the seemingly non-existent difference between the parties.

“Oh there is a difference,” Felix countered. “The country is headed in one direction, we know that. It is just a matter of how fast we get there. If we elect Republicans, it may take longer, but if we elect Democrats, we will be on the fast train.”

Listening to the late Solomon Burke’s wonderful rendition of the Van Morrison song quoted above, I realized how prophetic Felix’s words were. Clinton won — and the “fast train” took off.

* * *

In 2007, the economy strained and broke down. Blame was placed and the nation was prepared to board the Obama Express. Promises were made, lies were believed, money was being spent at a rate rarely seen in the past.

And you start breaking down ’cause you’re under the strain
And you jump on a fast train

The election of 2008 turned the fast train into a bullet train as for two years we saw, virtually unfettered, the progressives’ desires realized.

The nation became familiar with a president they did not know; unemployment numbers were fudged, inspectors general fired, bills passed but not read. Hucksterism won the day as Obamacare became a reality, and the number of people working decreased when perpetual unemployment benefits were proffered. “Unemployment checks,” Nancy Pelosi told us, “are the fastest way to create jobs.”

Those who knew better were stunned; all the while the media was silent. The wheels were starting to wobble.

* * *

John Hawkins of Townhall.com has compiled a list of reasons why the fast train should be stopped immediately — via impeachment. Four of those reasons are:

• Illegally changing Obamacare

• Engaging in an illegal war in Libya

• Lying to sell Obamacare to the American people

• Violating immigration law and illegally implementing the DREAM Act

These actions represent a new direction away from American Dream that most believe in, one where we expect integrity and responsibility from our leaders.

And you start breaking down and go into the pain
Keep on moving on a fast train

The excuse makers, the remaining Obama diehards, all defend the four points listed above with the refrain: “He means well.”

To paraphrase one defender of the president: “Even if Obama has his failures — and he has plenty — they were at least well-intentioned failures.” (Substitute Clinton, FDR or LBJ for Obama and those words have equal applicability.)

Yet the train keeps a-rollin’. Does failure ever have a price?

Up to point four of the above list it is clear that the nation will tolerate the actions outside of his authority, as well as the deceptions, by this president.

Sadly, we know Obama will not be impeached; the poltroon wing of the Republican Party will not stand for it.

Simply put, those who support this president feel that the “good” he brings to the nation outweighs the bad. For them it is, in essence, a quid pro quo.

But someone has to pay the price — and that someone is the federal income tax payer, which is 54 percent of all Americans.

Yet the 46 percent who pay no federal income tax feel the 54 percent are not doing enough to help them. God help us when the 46 percent becomes the 54 percent.

* * *

There is a fifth reason given by Mr. Hawkins for impeachment:

• Releasing five Taliban terrorists in exchange for deserter Bowe Bergdahl

There is no argument here that the president broke the law; he even told us that the law does not apply to the commander-in-chief.

He may have a winning case — but when did the “constitutional scholar” morph into a one-man Supreme Court?
(Oh, I forgot, he is unfamiliar with Marbury. I guess he was absent that semester.)
And what do the Obama defenders say in his defense? You guessed it: He had good intentions.

His team providing cover has numerous excuses:

• Bergdahl is not the issue; military “leadership” is.

• Bergdahl’s squad had “discipline issues” — implying Bergdahl was the sane one in a “Dirty Dozen” squad of malcontents.

• Bergdahl “served with honor,” according to Susan Rice. Believe me, when you have to send out Susan “It was the video” Rice to defend your honor, you know the battle has been lost.

But the same team running this train — the one that left Ambassador Stevens at the station — wants us to believe they will leave no soldier behind.

You’re way over the line, next thing you’re out of your mind
And you’re out of your depth, in through the window she crept
Oh, there’s nowhere to go in the sleet and the snow

The Bergdahl decision has demonstrated that President Obama is either “out of his depth” or his desire to “transform” the nation is so strong he is willing to free men who were — and still are — intent on destroying America.

Regarding these men, the Los Angeles Times reports on two of the most dangerous:

“Mohammed Fazl was chief of staff of the Taliban army and is accused of commanding forces that massacred hundreds of civilians in the final years of Taliban rule before the 2001 U.S.-led invasion. …

“Mullah Norullah Noori is listed as ‘a senior Taliban military commander … during hostilities against U.S. and coalition forces in late 2001’ who was ‘wanted by the United Nations for possible war crimes, including the murder of thousands of Shiite Muslims.’”

Recent reports in the Washington Times indicate there was more to this deal than we are being told, including cash payments:

“(A) senior intelligence official expressed concern that the United States may have ‘enriched a terrorist network. We just funded them for the next 10 years is my guess,’ he said.”

When does a bad decision cross the line to “aiding and abetting”?

* * *

There is little to nothing that can be done regarding President Obama, a man whose single biggest accomplishment has been to make Jimmy Carter look good. No small achievement, that.

Perhaps all we can do, as Felix suggested years ago, is try to slow the fast train down.

As we look toward 2016, one would be foolish not to think that Hillary “What difference does it make?” Clinton will not be the Democratic nominee for president.

And if you like Obama at the wheel, wait until you see Hillary.

Oh, trying to get away from the past
Oh, keep on moving keep on moving on a fast train
Going nowhere, across the desert sand, through the barren waste
On a fast train going nowhere, going nowhere fast …

Dennis Lund is a mechanical engineer who lived in Benicia for more than 20 years.