Things fall apart, further

  There is a power vacuum in Washington DC.
  Everyone knows it, which explains the monkey business going on around the world.
  The talk has ratcheted up, concern about this president and what he's doing....or not doing. 
  There are some real questions about not just leadership but judgment and...priorities, one might say.
  We know he values golf. And parties. And networking. And being on tv. And showing up on tv shows. And making his basketball picks. And showing movies at the White House. And making sure Michelle gets her $1000 bags and trips to Spain.
  John H. at Powerline suggests Obama wants to be king.
  Here's a round up from around the web. Let's start with Rich Lowry over at NRO:

Pres. Barack Obama has belatedly joined the ranks of presidential fatalists. The job isn’t too complex necessarily; it’s too damn influential. According to the New York Times, Obama has been telling aides that it’d be easier to be president of China. No one hangs on Hu Jintao’s every word, or expects global leadership from a grasping, one-party state that has never been a beacon to the world.

  It's hard to describe why the allusion to Obama wishing to be president of China is so despicable, considering that political quarreling winds up with the loser non-president individual might end up being executed.  
  Don Surber says he's thinking Nixon, more and more every day.

Maybe it is the fund-raising.

Maybe it is the enemies list.

Maybe it is the many wars on Fox News.

Maybe it is his friends, although Bebe Rebozo never said “God Damn America” or tried to blow up the Pentagon.

But there is something about Barack Obama that reminds me of Richard Nixon. Are we sure our 37th president didn’t visit Hawaii right after he lost the 1960 election? Could have had a tryst…

  Investors remarks about the parties, the basketball games, the golf, the "bullying conference," (which, btw, is a national ordeal for today's school children). It's quite interesting:

We can't just accept that "kids will be kids," Obama insisted, citing data showing that many American students have been "pushed, shoved, tripped, even spit on."

Then, of course, there is the partying. Late last month, the president and first lady treated themselves to an East Room concert by Smokey Robinson, Sheryl Crow, comedian Jamie Foxx and others. At previous soirees, the Obama White House has hosted Stevie Wonder, Paul Simon, Tony Bennett, Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, and even a cavalcade of stars from Broadway shows. 

  Jonah Goldberg writes of the opportunism being shown by those attempting to use the nuclear problems in Japan to their own advantage, in the absence of leadership. (There's more about this issue at the Canada Free Press.)
  Politico dances around the issue of Obama's disconnect with reality--lots of talk about the games he enjoys but little about policy.
  The mysterious and perhaps fictional Ulsterman quotes the mysterious and perhaps fictional White House Insider who tells a story about a weird encounter with the POTUS, who appears to be not all there, indeed much more concerned about ballgames and golfing than anything remotely resembling governing. 
  It's as if he's just "Being There." 

Eventually the meeting did get underway with participation from a number of us in that room, but during that time, which was no more than say, fifteen minutes, the president said almost nothing.  He would smile, he would nod, and he would turn to Jarrett to confirm if something that was said was correct, or agreeable.  The only time the president showed any sign of life was when someone made a reference to basketball.  Then he became far more animated – but that only lasted for a brief moment and he returned to his silent nodding and smiling.  Even though the meeting lasted those 15 minutes at the most, it felt much longer simply because it was so –expletive- uncomfortable. After another episode of silence, Jarrett cleared her throat and declared to us that the president was needed elsewhere.  As soon as she said that, Obama shot up from his seat and gave that same weird smile of his that he had on when he first came in,  a brief “thanks for the talk”, and then headed  out the door with Jarrett close behind.  I was looking around the table and saw some people acting as if the president’s behavior was completely normal, but a few others were, like me, clearly unsettled by what we had just seen.  Something was not right with this president.

  So let's think about it. Let's consider the unusual reaction of POTUS in times of stress.

• The shooting at Fort Hood where he gave a cheerful "shoutout" to someone before he addressed the deaths of soldiers
• The death of Polish President, Obama's cancellation to attend the funeral while choosing to golf that day instead
• Lack of response to democracy advocates in Iran
• The casual failure to address the Christmas Day bomber in a timely manner, yet hitting the golf course several times before he spoke to the country
• Calling for Gadafi to step down and then doing absolutely nothing in Libya 
• Lack of response to Egypt democrats 
• The emotional disengagement from the Japan disaster 
• The lack of response to the pep rally for the dead at the Tucson shooting
• Obama's indifference to the economic & fuel crisis in this country, while calling for sacrifice for the country while practicing excess himself
• His lack of concern over cleaning up the Gulf oil spill while other countries offered aid which Obama deferred
• The casual spending of trillions of dollars, while arrogantly refusing to manage a budget
• The self pitying remark that it would be easier to be president of China
• The blank looks at the teleprompter, the stuttering in the absence of the teleprompter, the lack of substance to any real question of content

  Of the articles mentioned in this posting, sadly, the one that seems most appropriate is the one written by the mysterious but perhaps fictional White House insider. 
  Perhaps that's because this is a fictional presidency.