You want a good feel for the HNIC read The Amateur by Edward Klien. He's fond of the Dems and only quotes from Dems in the book, some first hand like Reverend wright. The bottom line is they no longer care much about their boy, but they have no place to go in their minds.
It gives a good look at his inner circle and it's scary as hell.
Senior adviser, Valerie Jarrett, married to a commy, tight in the Daley machine, experience outside Chicago NONE.
National Security adviser, Tom Donilon, experience NONE and has only been out of the country once and that was a ride with Obama to Afghanistan.
Axelrod, a political consultant.
This is the guys trusted inner circle. They don't have enough experience collectively to run a small state.

The say he fired/resigned James Jones as security adviser because he couldn't keep up with the general who actually knew what he was talking about.