Two days ago, Matt Drudge linked to a new book by Jerome Corsi, unflinchingly titled Where’s the Birth Certificate? The book immediately leapt to number one on Amazon.com, where it has remained ever since.  The media has shown its usual incredulity at the "indisputable" stupidity of the American people.  How could so many people question President Obama’s birthplace?  How could they wonder about his origins?  Are they all simply racist?

The answer, of course, is that Americans are desperately seeking an answer to a simple question: why does President Obama appear to be so un-American?  The term un-American here is not synonymous with anti-American (though Obama has been that on occasion); instead, it merely signifies that President Obama is unconcerned with typical American principles and traditions.  He sees capitalism as selfish and evil, religion as dangerous and oppressive; he sees the Constitution as antiquated and entrepreneurialism as exploitative.

He is the representative of the Fareed Zakaria ideology at work, celebrating the post-American world.

When America elects a president like this, many Americans begin wondering how it happened.  There are always two answers to such difficult questions: the first is optimistically externally-oriented, while the second is realistically reflexive.