Tyrants often come to a bad end, as witness Mussolini and Ceausescu, both of whom enjoyed haranguing the crowd from a balcony, never seeing the end coming. The tyrant, even a so called democratic one like Obama, cannot see beyond his own self-glittering, all-absorbing persona. Dazzled by his own brilliance, Obama sees no danger to himself or his acolytes. There is nothing he cannot dispose of with a smile, a cool remark, a wave of his mighty hand. Obama will not end up like Ceausescu or Mussolini, though the White House does have a balcony.

None are so blind as will not see
The restless waters, dark’ning sky
The jagged rocks just off his lee
The people stirring with each lie
He pays no heed to mounting threats
Until the day of stark collapse
When he, who never had regrets
Sees mobs descend, and then perhaps
He’ll understand that all is lost
And he, whose every word been hailed
Now sees that he must bear the cost
Now that illusion’s light has failed