Is it possible we are misreading President Obama, that what is perceived as weakness is strength, and what is perceived as incompetence is prowess, grace and style? Is it possible the president is playing a much deeper and much more clever game than thumb suckers like us can possibly imagine? I see, in some future time, a golden tomb on the banks of the Chicago River crowded with admiring mobs, the alabaster walls adorned with the word Barack surrounded by a golden cartouche, with painted hieroglyphs praising the glorious reign of the Pharaoh.

Oh Potentate of Mars, oh sailor of the Sun
How grand thy wonders and how bright thy smile
We bow in awe at all thy works and when the day be done
We praise thee for magnificence of style
Appear thou did from out the mists in time of great travail
And calmed the great wild waters of much trial
With charm and grace and competence of mind that could not fail
And patience that would walk the extra mile
And now thy efforts come to pass and start to bearing fruit
The Middle East is Switzerland with sand
The Chinese and the Russians play sweet songs upon the lute
And all the world has come to understand
That thou art placed upon the Earth to see that Heaven’s gate
Swings wide to welcome every man and child
And standing there in snow white robes the mighty Potentate
Will see that his great works are not defiled