One of the laws of physics says for every action there is an equivalent counter-reaction, or that which goes up usually comes down.
The President enjoyed very high popularity ratings during his first ten months in office.
It was inevitable that the honeymoon would end, and it has.
But the incessant carping of the "birthers" and other oddballs wasn't sufficient to have a serious impact.
Nor was the President's commitment to promoting health care reform a major drawback.
Indeed, it seems some progress, though not necessarily in the form many would like, is taking place on that front.
When the commander-in-chief suddenly morphed into Lyndon B.
Obama, he voluntarily stepped into the quagmire, into an electoral abyss from which it is almost conclusive he will not emerge intact, politically.
Campaigns for the highest office begin years in advance, but they especially gain momentum 24 months before an election day.
This means the President has less than a year from this point to make major inroads in "winning" the Afghan war, to demonstrate that his surge was worth the costs, human and financial.
If there is no substantial progress in defeating the Taliban, he will have sealed his fate as a one-term leader.
We can expect to see a serious challenge to his re-nomination from a genuine peace candidate within the Democratic Party, and if not there, certainly from a third party candidate.
That is what was bound to happen with LBJ.
But instead of suffering the humiliation of being recalled by his own party, he chose to bow-out well before the conventioneers could cast him out.
I predict it won't be long before Democrats and others perceive the President to be a lame duck, further eroding his credibility and influence.
Riding a wave of popularity and optimism such a short time ago, this prospect is especially saddening.
But it is nothing compared to the grief those will feel when their loved ones are felled on a battlefield that should never have been.