With polls showing that only 39 percent of the American people approve of President Obama’s foreign policy—and Vladimir Putin ignoring his warnings in Ukraine—realists may wonder whether this is the best moment to embrace Obama as one of their own. It’s nice to think that the president of the United States accepts your ideas, less nice to see how he has applied them—and not nice at all to take the blame for the result.
A realist can, of course, disclaim responsibility for specific pieces of Obama’s record. Those hopeful early speeches designed to transform relations with the Muslim world? A rookie mistake. Last summer’s embarrassing “red line†business with Syria? A reminder not to make threats you don’t intend to deliver on. Ukraine? Ditto.
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