The United Nations General Assembly, the G-20, fears of a US-China trade war, missile defense, and new revelations of secret Iranian nuclear plants. Pair those developments up with a domestic U.S. legislative agenda that includes the ambitious reform of the health care sector and a crack at a wide-reaching climate change bill, and September has proven once again to be a chaotic month in Washington. But what to make of it? Are the Obama Administrations domestic ambitions too great? Is US foreign policy in the process of collapsing under the weight of unrealistic expectations? I'd offer that it's both too early and unhelpful to consider these questions. Let's just focus on what we know:

* Domestic politics take a toll on foreign policy. No one has ever accused the House of Representatives of being the bastion of strategic thinking, but its Members know a street fight when they see one. No where has that been clearer than on health care. By summer's end, both parties in Congress were locked in a struggle over so-called "health care reform", which has really amounted to reform of the most popular means of financing health care - insurance. The Holy Grail for the left wing of the Democratic Party, a public option of government-provided insurance, is anathema to much of the GOP. President Obama, seeking middle ground for a compromise, eliminated plans for a public option in a nationally televised speech to the Congress on September 9th. The very next day, senior leaders of the president's own party, include House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, retaliated by barring further funding for military operations in Afghanistan. Key Democrats are seeking retribution in other areas as well, in an attempt to create leverage to reactive the public option on health care.

* There is no formal trade policy. The Administration continues to define its approach to global trade on the fly. Policy has not been defined, so much as revealed in a series of disconcerting moves since January. The Administration has been so passive on trade as to be nearly supine before protectionist forces within the Democratic Congress and core constituencies. The White House has failed to resist Buy American provisions in the stimulus, allowed the Congress to pressure Panama, Colombia and Korea to renegotiate portions of concluded free trade agreements, temporized on the WTO Doha Round talks, and most recently issued punitive tariffs on Chinese tires at the behest of organized labor. All the while, the President and key aides have touted publicly their commitment to open markets, and exhorted world leaders to resist protectionism. At a certain point in the not too distant future, the divorce between rhetoric and reality will have significant consequences for the Administration's international credibility. Domestically, the perception among key groups is that the White House may be rolled on trade. Following in the wake of the tire decision, labor unions are preparing now to file additional 421 petitions calling for higher tariffs on Chinese textiles and steel products.

* Changes to missile defense might be the Administration's best foreign policy move yet. The revelation September 25 of another hidden Iranian nuclear facility cast fresh light on the Administration's decision last week to shelve the Bush era plan for ground-based interceptor missiles in Central Europe. Initially criticized as reckless, the new plan should win support from a variety of US allies. The Administration, following recommendations from the armed forces and taking advantage of existing technology, will create a mobile sea, air and land-based system of missile defense, highly mobile, and deployable to multiple theaters of operation. Testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee September 24, Administration officials noted pointedly that the new system would be readily adapted for use by allies in the Persian Gulf - and by Israel - to provide an integrated, multi-layered approach to the threat from Iranian short and medium range ballistic missiles. The October 1st negotiations between Iran and the P-5 group now take on greater import, as Tehran's may now be seeing for the first time a restriction to its range of movement imposed by the major powers.

For conclusions then, we're left with thin gruel. The U.S. president, despite his totemic treatment by much of the Western media establishment, is being revealed day by day as a mere mortal politician, facing significant political problems. As the law of diminishing returns applies itself to President Obama's rhetorical skills, the challenges will become more severe, frequent, and dynamic. The level of political infighting is increasing, while external skepticism rises as well. One wonders how long the White House will continue to operate as if it does not realize how tightly it is about to be constrained by reality.