As the recent debates have made clear, the fresh-out-of-ideas Obama campaign is about just one thing -- a pathetic plea to "Give me more time -- just one more chance.  Please."

Americans are forgiving and reasonable people.  Stand up and take responsibility, say you realize the error of your ways, and now you'll do better -- well, yes, then we'll give you another chance.  But we haven't seen that.  Obama never repents; he never has a moment of doubt that could alter his disastrous course.  And that's why in the 2010 election he lost the House and Republicans swept the governorships.

So how to explain this willingness of many to vote for Mr. Obama when we're all suffering from his fiscal quackery, when there's no learning from mistakes, no contrition, and no ability to shift his ideology and act rationally to fix the economy?

In the real world, second chances are hard to come by in most things -- even smallish things.  Many of us have experienced the personal nightmare of a bad haircut -- that sinking feeling when you realize that the glamorista new look you hoped for is lying in shreds on the floor of the salon and there's no pasting those shreds back on.  In a few weeks, your coiffure may be back to semi-normal, but you'll never go back to that haircutter.  No second chances for her.

Recently I took my car to a new place to get the oil changed (okay, they sent me a coupon), and when I went to pick it up, I noticed a coil of wires and miscellaneous metal flotsam hanging down from the middle of the chassis almost to the pavement.  I went back in and told them about it, and some guy shuffled over and stuffed the stuff back in.  I still get reminder postcards from them, but surprise: I now take my vehicle elsewhere.  No second chance.

The people I know who want to give Obama a second chance are strangely unforgiving in most aspects of their lives.  They'll fire their lawn care team if they're fifteen minutes late, and they'll sue if the neighbor's dachshund is overly vocal.  Second chances with them are few and far between.

Yet they'll forgive this president for blasting a smoking $4,500 hole in their household income, and presiding over the doubling of gas prices while throwing useless billions at his green energy fantasy -- no problem.  The Obama voters don't seem to mind that he's got another $1.9 trillion planned in new taxes which will cripple their livelihoods and the larger economy.  They laugh off a national debt of $6 trillion in less than four years -- who cares that debt will drag their kids and grandkids future down into the hole of punishing taxes and depleted incomes to pay it back?  Give the president a second chance?  Heck yes!

You know those Liz Taylor-type women who divorce their abusive husbands and then remarry the same guys?  Confetti and champagne fuel the triumph of hope over reason -- but not for long.  It rarely works the second time around, because he remains exactly the same person: a guy who hasn't learned a thing.  Stuck in same old, same old, the second chance is doomed to go bust.  And for the same reason, so would an Obama second chance.

But not to worry: Obama actually told us we don't have to vote for him again.  Just weeks after his inauguration, he said on The Today Show, "... I will be held accountable.  You know, I've got four years.  And you know, a year from now, I think people are going to see that we're starting to make some progress ... if I don't have this done in three years, then there's going to be a one-term proposition."

How refreshing that there's one thing this president is right about.  You know.

Joy Overbeck is a Colorado journalist and author who's written for The Washington Times, the Daily Caller, the Kitchen Cabinet, the American Thinker, www.mycoloradoview.com, and her quirky God website, www.godsayshi.org.  Twitter - @JoyOverbeck1