While travelling abroad, it can be revealing to observe how third parties see situations which are familiar but can be hard to judge for a party entrapped in them. When living in the United States now one has the impression to be part of some colossal, all-encompassing downfall. The encroachment of the negative becomes repetitive and unbearable. The outside world looks on with awe, disbelief or distaste. The administration is seen as a hapless group of amateurs, guided by a coterie of the blind.
It would be unfair to put all the blame on one side, since the opposition is anything but loyal or creative. Parochial attitudes prevail and the slightest piecemeal agreement is off-limits. If both chambers in Congress become Republican majorities, the lame-duck presidency will be a "death announced."
President Obama was unable to cozy up to Congress. He has been equally failing to forge more personal contacts with leaders abroad, foes and friends alike. Allies doubt both his word and his resolve. They also have themselves to blame, since they resent American involvement while reversing course when it is no longer there.
One should not indulge in the blame game. On the other hand, one becomes rightly worried when the former "indispensable country" looks absent for lack of clear leadership. Everywhere problems multiply, creating a perverse backlash. While the Russian machismo or the Chinese rise are met with mixed feelings, the likes of Putin and Xi Jinping are, perversely, "in fashion."
President Obama now appears almost "fraudulent." The Nobel Prize winner from the early days has now become seen as yet another provincial Chicago politician who has lost his "mojo" together with his former persona, which now appears now to have been ''fabricated.'' Still, he can occasionally wake up to the moment, as during his recent address to the UN General Assembly. But then the high point is immediately overtaken by unfortunate events, not always of his own making but seen as another transgression of professional leadership. As a result, one ends up dreading what the post-American world might have in store.
The answer can only come from the Americans themselves. Dynasty fatigue, a lack of indispensable successors, dysfunction all over, are making the last Obama years even more ominous. The EU's irrelevance only creates more opportunities for others (BRICS) to accelerate the coming apart of the former American order. In the end, President Obama risks being seen as having set into motion the involuntary (temporary) eclipse of the American might. Nobody contests his intellect but all start to question his investment in "leadership." It is an unfair allegation maybe, but lately the White House looks adrift.
When a grand power loses the knack to negotiate in Nixon/Kissinger style, it might as well become irrelevant. What are the achievements after six years of the Obama administration? The Affordable Care Act, which doesn't dare to say its name? Another albatross, alas!
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