Sometimes it seems to me I am living in that TV show The Dome, because so many in the markets seem to not be aware of what is going outside their own little world. Syria may seem to be over as an immediate crisis, but it is not over and is only festering and will develop into a much worse crisis in time. Obama has acted in ways that even fairly middle of the road policy experts who have served presidents of both parties have said they have never seen a president act so weak and uncertain as Obama has over the past week. As many have stated, Iran and their subsidiaries, as well as Russia and China have watched as the United States withdrew from strong world leadership. That is extremely dangerous. The bad guys in all those countries are really tough and ruthless. Assad in his interview with Charlie Rose stated clearly that he is prepared to do whatever is required to win. Those are his words. Principals are irrelevant to these guys. Power is all that matters. Killing lots of people is simply what you do to retain power. It is that simple.

While Obama will start a major effort this week to change the subject and start to blame the Republicans for a potential impass and government shutdown, and they will get blamed for making the economy unfair, unequal, and all those campaign rhetoric phrases, the reality is we are headed for potential serious problems and a major mess. Putin will continue to play Obama who will occupy his time on the fiscal mess, while Putin and Iran manipulate Syria into a win for Assad and a major loss for the western world. We continue to close in on the red line Israel has set for Iran and it matters not what Obama is doing. Israel will not shirk its existence. It will attack at some point and now is much more likely to act alone and thus drag in the US. It is clear Obama has no leadership or guts and so Israel will do whatever it feels it must and drag him along just as Putin led him down the primrose path.

Congress may try to pass a continuing resolution to push out the real decisions on the budget and debt ceiling. Obama says he will not give an inch. When was the last deal you did where you could say this is my position and you get nothing at all. Never. Either you compromised or the deal died. There is no dead deal for the budget of the US. There has to be a deal. Politics is supposed to be the art of compromise not the foolish this is ti or die positions of the tea party and Obama, Harry Reid and Patty Murray. The tea party people are their own worst enemy and they are not smart enough to recall they lost the chance for the Republicans to control the Senate. The really scary thing is to listen to Obama and some of the tea party members in Congress and to remember these are the people who are supposed to be running the government.