Obama’s Hands Tied by Russian Crisis

First Read: “The focus of a president’s second term usually turns more to foreign policy, especially once it seems like domestic priorities are totally stalled, you know, like it appears now. But for President Obama and his administration, the events in Ukraine and Russia probably aren’t what they had in mind on the foreign-policy front — especially with key midterm elections slightly more than seven months away. The president would prefer to be picking and choosing the foreign-policy focus he would like to have, say, like his event yesterday with the Palestinian leader on the ever-elusive Mideast peace deal.”

“Bottom line: Obama and his team are handcuffed dealing with this thorny issue when they have plenty of domestic work to do to help their party in November… And as we wrote yesterday, it’s highly unlikely that this foreign-policy standoff gets resolved in a triumphant way that helps Obama politically; this isn’t one of those crises where the public rallies around the commander-in-chief.”