Yes, I predicted Obama's election will make weaker and poorer because he was committed to the diminution of American power but the speed with which he accomplishes the task continues to amaze.  No wonder Michelle Obama loves this country now.  It is getting as weak as she has hoped it would be.  He has 18 months to continue the destruction.  Then, perhaps, a new president will start the hard process of rebuilding.

Wake up, America! You’re falling behind warns Kishore Mahbubani, the Dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy

Unfortunately, American public intellectuals have an incestuous, self-referential discourse among themselves saying, “Aren't we the greatest in the world? Gee, aren't we wonderful?” And they don’t realize that Western power - American power - is receding steadily in the world.

Look at Southeast Asia.  After theU.S.won the Cold War, (Southeast Asia) was frankly an American lake. And then suddenly Americans became very arrogant and they said, “Hey, we don’t need the world; forget you.”

Info

At the Pentagon, which bears the brunt of much of this hesitation and vacillation, the mood is one of not-so-quiet desperation. Said one longtime friend of Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Michael Mullen and Defense Secretary Robert Gates: “They think it [the Libyan operation] is just nuts. We are destroying our credibility with this situation, and there is really no answer to it.” .  .  . .

As for Iran, ever since the regime there confronted and crushed huge pro-democracy protests in 2009, nothing threatens it more than successful revolutions in the Arab world. And nothing gratifies Iran’s leaders more than to see the United States dithering about whether Arab democracy is in American interests. The ripple effects are felt even in East Asia, where a former U.S. ambassador says he’s heard that the North Koreans are telling the Chinese “if this is the best the Americans can do in Libya, we’ve got nothing to worry about.”

The end of the American era? Only another Reagan revolution can save the US ... Telegraph.co.uk (blog) - Nile Gardiner -

IMF Predicts Chinese Economy to Surpass U.S. in 2016 

The next American president will be the last to preside over the world's largest economy, as the International Monetary Fund predicts China will surpass the US in 2016.

America's dominance as the world's largest economy is coming to an end sooner than had originally been projected. According to the International Monetary Fund, the United States will be eclipsed by China in 2016, Marketwatch reported on Monday.