The Strong Horse

In most of the world, by now, national leaders have figured out that the U.S. president is a political lightweight, even flyweight, who has no idea what he's doing.

Karzai in Afghanistan is now willing to negotiate with the Taliban.
In Pakistan, where they know who the Taliban are, and what they're like to deal with, they've started a major push to crush them while the crushing's good.
Taiwan is trying to make nice with mainland China in hopes of forestalling an invasion.
North Korea is off on another screaming fit, threatening the South with nuclear annihilation if their rice allowance isn't raised. The South, on the other hand, doesn't seem to be buying into this line like they used to. China is sending signals that if the two want to finally settle their differences, they're willing to sit it out. No profit in going to war with your best customer, after all.
France and Germany are facing economic reality now that the U.S. is becoming Europeanized to the point that our economy no longer bolsters theirs.

It's even taking hold locally as Arizona moves unilaterally to enforce Federal immigration law, Louisiana moves unilaterally to build the sand dams necessary to prevent oil from coming ashore, and New Jersey, in the form of Governor Christie, is telling the unions that the free ride is over.

California has been gerrymandered into a Blue state to the point it would probably remain Blue even if the Dems started holding public human sacrifices. Still, polls suggest that if Arizona's immigration law were put up as a referendum, it would pass handily.

Texas is considering their own version of the Arizona law. Texas being Texas, I rather expect this to pass sooner or later.

Several states have passes firearms freedom laws, exempting locally built and sold firearms from federal law. The attorney-general has frowned on this, but even he's not being taken all that seriously.

I guess this might be the American version of a Velvet Revolution, in which the states, one after another, simply chose to ignore an increasingly irrelevant federal government, recognizing that if you want anything done, you need to do it yourself.