Sticks And Stones

Unfluential
To some, the stark difference between the outcomes in Cairo and Bahrain illustrates something else, too: his impatience with old-fashioned back-room diplomacy, and his corresponding failure to build close personal relationships with foreign leaders that can, especially in the Middle East, help the White House to influence decisions made abroad. 
....
The tensions between Mr. Obama and the Gulf states, both American and Arab diplomats say, derive from an Obama character trait: he has not built many personal relationships with foreign leaders. “He’s not good with personal relationships; that’s not what interests him,” said one United States diplomat. “But in the Middle East, those relationships are essential. The lack of them deprives D.C. of the ability to influence leadership decisions.”(NYT, 9/24/2012)

Stunning condemnation (if anyone would bother to talk about it) from a paper enormously sympathetic to Obama. We have heard this about Obama as it relates to domestic issues as well - he fails to build relationships with politicians on either side to get things accomplished. Obama's tragic flaw is narcissism, believing that he can control people and events through the sheer force of his personality. He has his toadies in the Democrat party for sure, but he has demonstrated zero ability to influence anyone either on the fence or on the other side.

Lost And Found
Obama, to some extent, has regained his own mojo. (The Fix, Washington Post, 9/24/2012)

We got days and days of endless reporting by the Washington Post and the entire 'Journalists for Obama' team about Mitt Romney's 'gaffes.' Meanwhile Obama ducks Netanyahu and dismisses the Iranian nuclear threat, admits that his campaign distorts the truth, goes fundraising in the wake of the death of Americans in Libya which may or may not have been a terrorist attack, calls these deaths 'bumps in the road' and guess what?  HE'S GOT HIS MOJO BACK! We know this because the Liberal media has told us.