You Know Obama is in trouble when a knee-jerk supporter claims his incompetence is brilliant.

From the Washington Post:

Boxed in by red-line rhetoric and the Sunday show warriors, the Obama administration needed to somehow mobilize the opposition to war in Syria. It did that by “fumbling” the roll-out terribly.

Oh wait, they were being ironic:

The Obama administration’s strategy to cool the country on this war without expressly backing away from the president’s red lines has been brilliant, Hill aides say (just look at the polls showing overwhelming opposition!). If they are going to go to war, their efforts to goad Congress into writing a punitively narrow authorization of force that sharply limits any potential for escalation have worked beautifully. 

Believing anything else — like this is how the administration is actually leading the United States into conflict — is too unsettling.

That's even worse. Door number 1-incompetent. Door number 2-feckless.

The only "compelling" reason to bomb Syria is to keep Obama from losing face, since he said there would be consequences of crossing his imaginary red line. At least from my seat, if that's the most compelling argument, doing nothing is better.

Where is the partisan hackery when you need it? Obama will probably cobble together a coalition of the hawkish Republicans and Democrats and slavish lap dogs eg. Pelosi and as many of her caucus she can whip into shape.

This bipartisanship will be forgotten by the peripatetic media (Look! there's a squirrel!) next week when issues Congress can't agree on are due to be discussed.

Bill