SLEEPWALKING THROUGH HISTORY. “Most presidents don’t arrive at the White House so bored with the quotidian details of the American people.”

UPDATE: Reader Eugene Dillenburg emails: “This may explain why Obama spends so much time golfing and, to a lesser extent, playing basketball. You can believe you are the smartest person in the room, and you can surround yourself with people who tell you that you are the smartest person in the room. But the ball is not impressed. On the green, or on the court, you have to actually perform, and no amount of spin can turn a bogey into an eagle. Sports seems to be the one area of his life where right and wrong are not predetermined by how closely they align to his own thoughts.”