Re Obama: I’m not so sure that he nor many in his administration see themselves as representatives of the United States, but as representatives of their own thing: their own way of doing things. They look at themselves not as Americans, but as something ‘beyond’ (in their own eyes) and more precious.

Hmm. I just realized that what I’d written tags Obama and followers with a combination of the criminal cosa nostra (“our thing”) and the American motto novus ordo seclorum (“a new order for the ages”). Alas, their “new order” has been tried elsewhere, and found wanting and is also morally — if not legally — criminal.