"Rosebud..."

According to reports in the New York Post and the Washington Post, President Obama is becoming increasingly withdrawn and isolated, even from his own Cabinet members. From the New York Post:

The reports are not good, disturbing even. I have heard basically the same story four times in the last 10 days, and the people doing the talking are in New York and Washington and are spread across the political spectrum.

The gist is this: President Obama has become a lone wolf, a stranger to his own government. He talks mostly, and sometimes only, to friend and adviser Valerie Jarrett and to David Axelrod, his political strategist.

As far as I know, Obama hasn't actually taken to shuffling along the corridors of the White House at night in bedroom slippers and bathrobe, mumbling the word, "Rosebud", but he may be heading in that direction. And it's quite understandable. Ushered into the presidency on the myth of his own awesomeness - a myth he believed - it must be extremely difficult for him to come to terms with his own incompetence and the non-viability of an ideology that he has held dear his entire adult life. A man with genuine intelligence and strength of character would ultimately be able to admit this to himself, however hard the internal struggle, and change course. Is Obama such a man? For his own sake, as well as for the sake of the country, I hope he is; however, I have seen no evidence of it thus far.

(H/T: Friend and commenter, JeffS)