Obama plays Taboo while the Middle East burns

  I've suspected that the mysterious Ulsterman/White House Insider is a fantasy diary written by a Republican congressional aide hoping to get a movie contract. 
  But then again, you wonder.
  Take, for example, the White House Insider's observation that Obama is pretty much isolated, watching tv, relying on Valerie Jarrett to make the important decisions, on surrogates to address foreign policy and for the press to do the heavy lifting of keeping Obama "above the fray." 
  (Don't you love that phrase? It implies moral superiority when the reality is a detached lack of concern.)
  Here is an excellent example.
  New York Times headline: Bipartisan agreement: Obama isn't schmoozing
  See the detachment there? 
  To schmooze is defined as idle chatter; gossip.
  Note that the POTUS doesn't participate in this reprehensible social behavior. Gossip is usually defined as meaningless often destructive nonsense.
  Thus, POTUS is admirable, if distant.
  The NY Times article goes out of its way to elevate 44, whose image needs repair because of his complete and deliberate separation from American life:

Mr. Obama, in general, does not go out of his way to play the glad-handing, ego-stroking presidential role. While he does sometimes offer a ride on Air Force One to a senator or member of Congress, more often than not, he keeps Congress and official Washington at arm’s length, spending his down time with a small — and shrinking — inner circle of aides and old friends. 

He typically golfs with a trio of mid- to low-level staff members little known outside the West Wing. He does not spend much time at Camp David, the retreat other presidents have used to woo Washington. His social life runs toward evenings playing Taboo with old friends and their families, Wii video games with his wife and daughters or basketball with Robert Wolf, a banker and the rare new best friend Mr. Obama has acquired since entering politics. He vacations with friends from Chicago on Martha’s Vineyard in August and in Hawaii at Christmas.

  See, he's above the fray. He plays card games with his kids. Wii. Still vacations in the old haunts, not fazed by the enormity of being the most important guy in the world.
  Imagine W or Reagan or even Clinton being described as playing children's games while the Middle East rages, unemployment is high and the people suffer.
  Hidden in the article are the words "aloof" and "recluse."
  From the previously mentioned WH Insider report:

Look, President Obama is incapable of making a decision.  Anyone who tries to argue against that fact is simply avoiding the truth.  We’ve had two years to prove that, right?  The man cannot decide on anything himself.  He waits to be told what to think.  That is how he functions, if you can call it that.  He’s a barely functioning president, and that is a big reason why the situation is so dangerous.  His primary source of direction is Valerie Jarrett, who has no real experience with this kind of leadership.  [SNIP] And so they take this weak man, who has been told what to say and think all of his life, and they continue to do just that – tell him what to think and say. But that’s where things are falling apart – Valerie Jarrett doesn’t really understand national politics, or international leadership – most people don’t.  

So the messaging that comes from the president is uncertain because it’s Jarrett’s uncertainty we are seeing.  Jarrett understands some of what is going on in the country, but Obama understands none of it, and so between the two of them, we get this president who is almost completely detached from the responsibilities of being President of the United States.  Take away the canned political speech, take away the like minded crowds of supporters, and President Obama is completely lost.  He has been running away from the job of president since day one hasn’t he?  Does anyone really believe that isn’t true anymore?

  Hm.

  Then there's the Benedetto article over at Real Clear Politics about the complicity of the press:

Obama’s ability to avoid tough questions, skate above the fray and look presidential while his potential successors appear to be futilely flailing is not by accident. It is by White House design, abetted by a press corps that seems content with being shut out by the president and being spoon-fed the message of the day, rather than clamoring for more chances to ask him questions during this critical time. 

Just over the last couple of weeks, several major world events cried out for presidential comment, but little was forthcoming other than a few statements, some of which were attributed not to the president but to administration officials, named and unnamed. 

  One wonders how bad things need to get for the media to start telling the truth and actually doing some real reporting.
  Considering that Obama recently summoned the leftist media to the White House for cookies and tea, we're pretty dependent on the right wing media and bloggers.
  On a completely different note, let's take a look back at a 2008 comment about the function of Pravda in Russia from a little blog named Singapore Dissident:

There was a joke in the former Soviet Union which goes like this. In Pravda, there is no "truth" and in Isvestia there is no "news", which by the way were the 2 main newspapers in Soviet Russia. In Russian, Pravda meant "truth" and Izvestia meant "news". Both, of course, were state owned and controlled newspapers in the former Soviet Union. But what you got was neither truth nor news, just plain propaganda. That the Soviet Union is doing well. Grain production has gone up ten fold. The country cannot be in a better shape. Everything is just perfect. Except that the Soviet Union in truth was crumbling.