There comes a time and a point in history which indelibly define a President.  Oftentimes the event may not be of major import in the greater scheme of things but the management of it is of such prominence that the success or failure in the handling of the issue is permanently attached to the individual.  Such a moment has happened to Barack Obama.  His incompetence, inability to lead, prevarications, petulance and immaturity in the debt ceiling crisis have indelibly created an image of abject failure in the minds of a critical mass of people in the United States and around the globe.  He will never be able to overcome the portrait that has been etched in too many minds.

Barack Obama’s only interest in the debt ceiling debate was to raise the borrowing limit sufficiently to get by the next election, and as a cudgel to denigrate the Republicans.  His concern was not for the American people and the impact of overwhelming national debt, nor an impending and inevitable credit downgrade.  Rather, he was determined that raising the debt ceiling would not become an issue during the presidential campaign.  Thus, spending cuts created out of whole cloth, combined with tax increases aimed at stoking the embers of class envy, were bandied about by his party in order to justify an increase in the debt ceiling of $2.4 Trillion.

The destruction wrought by the nearly $5.5 Trillion (more than a third of the total debt of a nation 222 years old) he will have added to the nation’s balance sheet by the end of his term was immaterial, thus no detailed plan was forthcoming from the White House, and no lie or accusation aimed at the opposition was too absurd to tell.  The only matter of importance was his re-election; the long-term health of the country be damned.

With this lasted chapter of Obama cynicism he has gone a bridge too far; and that bridge has collapsed behind him.

Little does Barack Obama understand that he has forever branded himself as an incompetent and failure.  His narcissism and lifelong history of receiving public adulation will not allow him to comprehend the damage.  He does not understand that now few will listen to his speeches, no matter how well delivered; that few will believe what he is saying, as he has lied and obfuscated the facts so often.  Many world leaders have already arrived at the conclusion that Barack Obama is a leader that cannot be trusted, the citizens of the United States are beginning to  understand that he is a man without a core set of principles thus incapable of guiding the ship of state.

The media, increasingly realizing their culpability in the nation’s current state of affairs, has begun to ask more penetrating questions and grudgingly question Obama’s fitness for office.  Columnists once infatuated with his ability to deliver a speech and skin color have finally begun to admit their error.  The Left has become more open in their criticism, as they now understand that the hero upon whom they vested so much hope is a hollow shell.

The Obama Presidency is over.  He has abdicated all responsibility to the Congress, in particular the House of Representatives, which has little choice but to assume a role they are not structured to do: lead the country as best they can until November 2012.  The American people, suffering under the burden of high joblessness, eroding housing values, inflation and dramatically declining economic growth with no prospect of any immediate relief, are increasingly resigned to the fact that they must focus on surviving as best they can until the election.

Within the term of a president there comes a time and an issue or crisis that define his presidency.  Barack Obama has had his and failed.  The debt ceiling will be raised because the nation’s obligations demand it.   This was never an issue of whether to raise the ceiling, but rather how and what brakes will be applied to the incessant growth of unsustainable spending, in order to sustain the nation’s AAA rating and insure a future for succeeding generations.

Barack Obama, because at his core he is self-absorbed, dishonest and without coherence in his personal beliefs, was incapable of understanding the importance of this moment to lead in the debate over raising the debt limit and its impact on a nation facing financial and societal bankruptcy.   The die is now cast.  He has made permanent in the minds of a majority of American people the image of a man incapable of being President.  There is nothing he can do in the remaining 16 months before the election, particularly as the United States is clearly headed into another severe economic downturn, to change that perception.