Thus The Financial Times today. “Panetta’s memoirs mark the fifth such book by a senior official,” explains the newspaper. Leon Panetta, Barack Obama’s former Pentagon chief, has just come up with Worthy Fights (2014). He reports a “frustrating reticence to engage his opponents and rally support for his cause.” The president “lacks fire” in whatever he does. “Too often he relies on the logic of a law professor rather than the passion of a leader.” This echoes the book of Panetta’s predecessor, Robert Gates, whose Duty (2014) came out earlier this year. Vali Nasr, Obama’s special envoy on Afghanistan and Pakistan, offers a similar view in Dispensable Nation (2013). “It is not going too far to say that American policy is completely subservient to tactical domestic political considerations,” he writes. Hilary Clinton’s Hard Choices (2014) and Tim Geithner’s Stress Test (2014) complete the portrait of the American president as shallow, politically-driven, and lacking a knack for “real” diplomacy. According to the article, no administration has suffered so many attacks while still in office. “That so many insiders have chosen to publically challenge the administration is new,” writes Nasr, “and a sign of frustration.” Well put. The trouble started with exaggerated expectations, though. Obama was greeted as a savior six years ago. And saviors cannot but disappoint in the fullness of time.