Obama’s Do-Over

Dan Balz: “It’s been said there are no do-overs in life. But President Obama may be getting the closest thing to it with his abrupt turn to diplomacy on Syria. Still, it is a path as fraught with problems and risks for the president as was his failing effort to win public and congressional support for targeted military action.”

“For now at least, the possible sequencing of what will unfold on Syria — diplomacy before military action — makes more sense than the zigs and zags of the past two weeks. The president can now pursue diplomatic efforts to force Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to turn over control of his chemical weapons to an international body, and eventually to see them destroyed. Failing that, he could then go back to Congress with a stronger case to make that he has exhausted peaceful efforts and that only military action is the only course left to deter the Syrians from using those weapons again.”

Wonk Wire: Obama’s Syria speech wasn’t about Syria.