Today, the president is happily playing golf, away from Michelle and the girls.  O's press secretary told the pool this:

"Today, the President will be playing golf at the Floridian.  We will release a list of those in the President's foursome this afternoon.  At this time, there are no public events scheduled or plans for the President to leave the grounds of the golf club.  If those plans change, we'll let you know promptly." 

Meanwhile, out in the real world that Obama would like to ignore, this is happening:

Two Russian nuclear-armed bombers circled the western Pacific island of Guam this week in the latest sign of Moscow’s growing strategic assertiveness toward the United States.

The Russian Tu-95 Bear-H strategic bombers were equipped with nuclear-tipped cruise missiles and were followed by U.S. jets as they circumnavigated Guam on Feb. 12 local time—hours before President Barack Obama’s state of the union address.

And this certainly is not a sign of respect.  The opposite in fact.  Reset!

And this:

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. had the worst sales start to a month in seven years as payroll-tax increases hit shoppers already battling a slow economy, according to internal e-mails obtained by Bloomberg News.

“In case you haven’t seen a sales report these days, February MTD sales are a total disaster,” Jerry Murray, Wal- Mart’s vice president of finance and logistics, said in a Feb. 12 e-mail to other executives, referring to month-to-date sales. “The worst start to a month I have seen in my ~7 years with the company.”

This is no time for golf, yet there he is.  I can guarantee you the Russians, who see everything in terms of power politics, are interpreting these actions as weakness.  Watch out for the unexpected black swan this is encouraging.