In the Eyes of the World We're Losers

The deal may have reached but "Among foreign leaders and in global markets, the political histrionics have eroded
America’s already diminishing aura as the world’s economic haven and the sole country with the power to lead the rest of the
world out of financial crisis and recession.


It has chipped away at the global authority of President Obama, who was celebrated abroad when he came to office as a man
who would end an era of American unilateralism. Now the topic of discussion in other capitals is whether the Age of Obama is
giving way to an Age of Austerity, one that will inevitably reduce America’s influence internationally."

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/01/us/politics/01capital.html?hpw

what was going on here.
Without going through the whole answer I ended saying,
"I can go on and on. One thing I want to say is that you are witnessing a nation in serious decline. Both morally and economically. Add that to a militaristic mindset and the consequences can be tragic to everyone as we have witnessed in the past."

That was just another example of the excess sentimentality that has always surrounded Obama. That sentimentality had its good points (it helped get him elected by a comfortable margin). But the idea that one man was going to lay hands on the world (or even on the US role in it) was and is laughable.

What's so annoying about this (and I don't often help pile on the MSM) is that the chattering classes are just as responsible for that myth as the Obama campaign. Now that reality has exposed it as the hogwash it always was, they are searching for someone to blame. And what do you know, it ain't themselves they are blaming. Human society, international relations, and global economics are very complex systems with many moving parts. The US is important in all of them, but perhaps not as important as many people think. Surely the media poobahs knew that to begin with? Right?