There have been a spate of articles recently about Obama the Loner, Obama the Detatched, and Obama the Isolated. Richard Fernandez has a good piece highlighting the scary idea that the president is in his own little world, walled off from reality.

Maybe the President is retreating into light reading or watching entertainment the better to forget. That would be human and natural. The worst interpretation of Obama's behavior is that he's now in a mental bunker, still planning his victories, still convinced of his destiny, in an atmosphere masterfully portrayed in the movie Downfall. In that movie, a terminally defeated Hitler maneuvers imaginary armies against the advancing Red Army tide and no one has the nerve to tell him that the units on the map no longer exist.

And the Red Ink tide is advancing. The New York Times - that dependable cheerleader of liberal policies - has admitted the possibility that the economic equivalent of General Steiner can no longer attack to relieve the occupants of the bunker.

And Michael Goodwin at the NY Post:

If the reports are accurate, and I believe they are, they paint a picture of an isolated man trapped in a collapsing presidency. While there is no indication Obama is walking the halls of the White House late at night, talking to the portraits of former presidents, as Richard Nixon did during Watergate, the reports help explain his odd public remarks.

Obama conceded in one television interview recently that Americans are not "better off than they were four years ago" and said in another that the nation had "gotten a little soft." Both smacked of a man who feels discouraged and alienated and sparked comparisons to Jimmy Carter, never a good sign.

Blaming the country is political heresy, of course, yet Obama is running out of scapegoats. His allies rarely make affirmative arguments on his behalf anymore, limiting themselves to making excuses for his failure. He and they attack Republicans, George W. Bush, European leaders and Chinese currency manipulation -- and that was just last week.

The blame game isn't much of a defense for Solyndra and "Fast and Furious," the emerging twin scandals that paint a picture of incompetence at best.

All presidents have their yes men. The smart presidents maintain a corridor to outside advisors who can snap him back to reality if need be. Obama really has nobody - no "Friends of Bill" who will defend him and pull him up when he's down.

I'd say this is worrisome except it really doesn't matter. Obama is irrelevant and the country is almost officially biding its time until he's gone.