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Isolated, clueless.
I didn't see how he could survive politically the initial spate of NSA revelations. He said he had cleansed the programs upon assuming office. He owns this scandal. He has owned it for five years now. He gets along with nobody. He couldn't lead a tick onto a dog. Nobody trusts him now. European leaders say he must re-earn trust, leaving a reasonable chance that his reviews of the spy programs could result in a drastic scale-back. Is that plausible? He is said to feel "not in a good place" with the personal spying on foreign leaders so maybe he'll eliminate them. And the spying on private citizens of foreign countries? ? The industrial espionage? The bugging to learn trade negotiation strategy? Spying to make the worldwide web free for Google, Yahoo!, Microsoft and others to make more money? No, it is not plausible he will propose all of that. He will not feel it "pragmatic" to do all of that. All that is necessary. He has no moral compunctions about any of this. The American people who he represents have no moral compunctions about this. It is more plausible he will somnambulate through the remaining three years alone and shunned by other world leaders. The American people alone and shunned with him. A rogue leader of a rogue nation of rogues.
