By now, many Americans have heard various ratings of President Barack Obama’s performance as he approaches the end of his first year in office.

The talking heads are all over the grade spectrum with their evaluations. Most of the grades seem skewed by their own political lenses. That’s sad.

Others in the media, rather than specify an overall grade on Obama’s performance as president, have opted to parse their ratings by issue category such as: B on jobs, C on Afghanistan, D on health care.

Even the president has chimed in, on national television in response to Oprah Winfrey, with his own self-proscribed “good, solid B+.”

Here’s President Obama’s back and forth with Winfrey for your awareness:

WINFREY: A B+?

OBAMA: Yeah. I, I mean, I think that we have inherited the biggest set of challenges of any president since Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

WINFREY: So, B+; what could you have done better?

OBAMA: Well, B+ because of the things that are undone.

WINFREY: OK.

OBAMA: Health care is not yet signed. If I get health care passed, we tip into A-.

Sorry, Mr. President (and, unfortunately, for our country), it’s just not so.

Unlike the Nobel Peace Prize recently accepted by Obama in Oslo, awarding presidential performance grades (such as the president’s self-proclaimed overall good, solid B+) in light of the obvious lack of demonstrated results is wrong.

The president knows that, or should; and, he likely senses that most Americans know it, too.

But, the president has proven to be an adroit politician. Perhaps, that is why, while looking at Oprah Winfrey, he boldly told the national viewing audience “If we get health care passed, we tip into A-.”

Sorry again, Mr. President, it’s just not so.

Despite the president, party operatives and supporters in the media working hard to spin the facts in order to sway the perceptions of the people to the unfolding reality, consistent polling data confirms that Americans overwhelmingly disapprove of the so-called reforms being foisted upon them by an administration determined to take over yet another industry.

Passing undesirable legislation hardly justifies a performance grade improvement. If anything, ignoring the will of the people warrants failing the course.

Regarding the numerous other issues, which like academic courses, President Obama is accountable for completing, here is a snapshot of several, which together paint a broad picture that directly affects Obama’s overall grade:

• Unemployment is a major domestic problem.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, at the start of the recession in December 2007, the number of unemployed persons was 7.5 million, and the jobless rate was 4.9 percent.

As part of the Obama Administration hype on behalf of the stimulus bill, the president himself assured the public that unemployment would not exceed 8 percent.

Now, after expending billions of dollars of taxpayer funds, more than 15,400,000 people, or 10 percent, remain unemployed.

Those failures, in terms of actual results as well as in forecasting, do not warrant a passing grade.

• Afghanistan is now front and center internationally in terms of active U.S. involvement.

The president got this decision right. Unfortunately, what should have been a timely uniform decision was not.

Thus, what should have earned him a course grade of A is appropriately reduced to a B due to the prolonged delay in making the basic decision and finally announcing it. His grade is further reduced to a C by the apparent domestic political factoring cutting the number of troops requested by his own handpicked commanders, then to a D for including a exit date as part of the announcement.

Obama’s supporters point out as positives instances such as, when at the United Nations, the president talked about prohibitions on torture, talked about working on global warming, and, when he talked about working on the Middle East. These statements are offered as warranting “extra credit” in grading the president’s performance.

Talk is important, but talk matters little without appropriate action and results. That’s reality. It’s also why Obama’s supporters, in the absence of measurable results, choose to view talk, posturing and symbolism as performance accomplishment.

Here’s more reality: No matter how one slices and dices the facts, Obama’s first year is, at best, a D-.

Richard Olivastro is president of Olivastro Communications, a professional member of the National Speakers Association and founder of Citizens For Change. He can be reached at Rich@Olivastro.NET or 877.RichSpeaks.