US government shutdown: Barack Obama is presiding over the end of America's superpower status

UK Telegraph  "Thanks to President Barack Obama obduracy* over his flagship healthcare policy, Democrats and Republicans have failed to reach agreement in Congress on the federal budget, forcing the US Government to close down for the first time in 17 years, with around 700,000 federal workers being placed on indefinite leave.
"While the White House insists that essential areas of the government, such as the military, will continue to function, the shut down represents yet a further blow to the prestige of the Obama administration at a time when it is still reeling from its inept handling of the recent Syrian crisis."

*obduracy; "The state or quality of being intractable or hardened." I had to look it up.