Ordinarily, the state of other people’s marriages is of no concern to me, unless I know them and their children personally and observe the consequences of strife and disintegration.  But we are all affected by the mental and emotional stability of the president of the United States, particularly as the Middle East threatens to explode into an Armageddon-inducing nuclear arms race featuring regimes anxious to bring on the end of the world to realize religious prophecy.

The behavior of our commander in chief has been erratic, to say the least.  Flying off to Florida for golf in the face of the negotiations with Iran at a critical stage and ordering beers for the front cabin of Air Force One in the early morning and then stumbling down the stairs at the end of the return trip are danger signs.  But so is any evidence of real domestic strife at the White House.  If his personal life is falling apart, President Obama’s stewardship of our national security may be influenced.

Readers of the National Enquirer, which scooped the entire media of the United States in exposing John Edwards as a lying, philandering sire of an illegitimate child kept hidden, have been treated to many articles chronicling the troubled marriage of Barack and Michelle Obama (here, here, here, and here, for example).

But now, others are starting to notice the public body language of the first couple and commenting.  On The American Spectator, Esther Goldberg writes:

Here is a photo taken yesterday of Barack Obama giving Vicky Kennedy, wife of the late Senator Edward Kennedy, a warm, heart-felt hug at the dedication of the Edward M. Kennedy Institute yesterday. But where is his wedding ring?

On March 12 the first couple took separate planes to Burbank where each appeared in a show: he on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, she on The Ellen DeGeneres Show.

Michelle looked radiant cavorting with Ellen.

Barack and Jimmy were clearly yucking it up and having a high old time. In these photos, Barack does not look detached and Michelle does not look angry; this is a departure from their usual mien.

She poses a legitimate question:

So it’s not unreasonable to ask whether the President is suffering from, say, depression, and if so what he is taking for it. Why he needs so many vacations. Why he seems so untouched by the thousands of people who are being killed as a result of his policies.