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It is to President Obama’s great discredit that he has staked this credibility on a vote whose outcome he failed to game out in advance. But if he loses that vote, the national interest as well as his political interests will take a tangible hit: for the next three years, American foreign policy will be in the hands of a president whose promises will ring consistently hollow, and whose ability to make good on his strategic commitments will be very much in doubt.
— Ross Douthat, writing in the New York Times.
33%
Of those polled in a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News survey said Congress should approve President Obama’s request to attack Syria, while less than a quarter thinks military action is in the national interest.
In a world in which threats are more diffuse and missions more complex, America cannot act alone. America alone cannot secure the peace.
— President Obama, quoted by the AP, in his Nobel Peace Prize speech in 2009.
Whatever your views on the larger issues, it’s hard not to conclude that the administration’s handling of Syria over the last year has been a case study in how not to do foreign policy.
— Fareed Zakaria, writing on CNN.com.
47%
Of Americans say they don’t believe Obama on the IRS controversy, compared with 40% who say he is being truthful, a new Bloomberg poll finds. A new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll finds 55% of poll respondents said IRS scrutiny of conservative groups raised some level of doubt about the administration’s “overall honesty and integrity.”
