memeorandum: Will Obama and Europe let him get away with carving up Ukraine? (Wall Street Journal)

11:50 AM ET, March 3, 2014

Top Items:

President Obama's foreign policy is based on fantasy — FOR FIVE YEARS, President Obama has led a foreign policy based more on how he thinks the world should operate than on reality. It was a world in which “the tide of war is receding” and the United States could, without much risk, radically reduce the size of its armed forces.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Politico, The Heritage Foundation, Business Insider, Althouse, ABC News, Hot Air, The PJ Tatler, The Week, American Thinker, Mediaite, Lawyers, Guns & Money, Outside the Beltway and The Hill

Peter Baker / New York Times:

Pressure Rising as Obama Works to Rein In Russia — WASHINGTON — As Russia dispatched more forces and tightened its grip on the Crimean Peninsula on Sunday, President Obama embarked on a strategy intended to isolate Moscow and prevent it from seizing more Ukrainian territory even as he was pressured at home to respond more forcefully.

Discussion: Slate, Talking Points Memo, Los Angeles Times, Telegraph, Hot Air, Taylor Marsh, The Daily Caller, Right Wing Watch, peacefare.net, Politico, Bloomberg View, Daily Kos, Shakesville, The Plum Line, Business Insider, The Week, kyivpost.com and Balloon Juice

Russell Berman / The Hill:

US moves to isolate Russia from ‘community of civilized nations’ — The Obama administration on Sunday worked to isolate Russia on the world stage even as its president, Vladimir Putin, showed no signs of rolling back his military intervention in Ukraine. — President Obama spoke by phone …

Discussion: Politico, Hot Air, kyivpost.com, The Week, The Dish, The Democratic Daily and Scared Monkeys

David Ignatius / Washington Post:

Putin's error in Ukraine is the kind that leads to catastrophe — Napoleon is said to have cautioned during an 1805 battle: “When the enemy is making a false movement we must take good care not to interrupt him.” The citation is also sometimes rendered as “Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.”

Discussion: Power Line, New York Times, The Week, Guardian, VodkaPundit, Business Insider, Washington Free Beacon, New Yorker, Slate and kyivpost.com

Kevin Drum / Mother Jones:

Here's What Is Going To Happen With Ukraine — Following up on the previous post, if you do want to fret about Ukraine, I have just the thing for you. I'm going to tell you how this will all unfold: — Vladimir Putin will do something belligerent. (Already done.)

Discussion: Washington Monthly, BillMoyers.com and Prairie Weather

Michael Barone / Washington Examiner:

What to do about Putin's invasion of Ukraine? — BELTWAY CONFIDENTIAL RUSSIA VLADIMIR PUTIN UKRAINE — It is obvious that Russia is conducting an invasion of Ukraine. This violates the 1994 Budapest Memorandum between Russia, Ukraine, the United States and Britain …

Discussion: Hot Air

Anatol Lieven / Zocalo Public Square:
Why Obama Shouldn't Fall for Putin's Ukrainian Folly

Discussion: Guardian and Outside the Beltway

New York Times:
Russia's Aggression

Discussion: Fox News, USA Today, The Huffington Post and kyivpost.com

Bloomberg:
Russia Gas Threat Shows Putin Using Pipelines to Press Ukraine

Discussion: Politico and kyivpost.com

Ben Judah / Politico:
Why Russia No Longer Fears the West

Discussion: Financial Times, Bloomberg View, The Fix and New York Times

ThinkProgress:
Why The Crisis In Ukraine Isn't The Start Of Another Cold War

Discussion: The Monkey Cage, The Federalist, Washington Post, The Dish, The Atlantic Online and The Week

Will Dunham / Reuters:
Kerry condemns Russia's ‘incredible act of aggression’ in Ukraine

Discussion: Guardian and Daily Kos

Jeffrey Goldberg / Bloomberg View:

Obama to Israel — Time Is Running Out — When Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visits the White House tomorrow, President Barack Obama will tell him that his country could face a bleak future — one of international isolation and demographic disaster — if he refuses to endorse …

Discussion: Weekly Standard, The Times of Israel, Commentary Magazine, Taylor Marsh, Israel Matzav, Walter Russell Mead, Power Line, Hot Air, Israpundit and Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion

Adiv Sterman / The Times of Israel:
Obama: US won't be able to defend Israel if peace talks fail

Discussion: Right Turn, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion and The Gateway Pundit

Dan Raviv / CBS News:
U.S. pushing Israel to stop assassinating Iranian nuclear scientists

Discussion: Jihad Watch, The PJ Tatler and Israel Matzav

Jackie Calmes / New York Times:

Democrats Try Wooing Ones Who Got Away: White Men — ROYAL OAK, Mich. — Frank Houston knows something about the longtime estrangement of white men from the Democratic Party. His family roots are in nearby Macomb County, the symbolic home of working-class Reagan Democrats who …

Discussion: Democratic Strategist, The Raw Story, No More Mister Nice Blog and Lawyers, Guns & Money

Daily Mail:

EXCLUSIVE: Billionaire Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg ‘is planning to run for Senate seat in 2016’ — Sandberg, one of the business world's biggest champions of correcting gender inequality in the workplace, is eying a rebellion against Democratic Californian Senator Barbara Boxer

Discussion: Business Insider and The Raw Story

Pete Kasperowicz / The Hill:

For lawmakers, an O-Care escape option — This year, members of Congress and thousands of their staffers are finally signing up for health insurance provided by an ObamaCare exchange, fulfilling their commitment to live under the same system that millions of other Americans will use.

Discussion: Weekly Standard, Hot Air and Jammie Wearing Fools

Phillip Longman / Washington Monthly:

Oops: The Texas Miracle That Isn't — Conservatives say the Lone Star state's recent record of growth validates their economic agenda. That record crumbles upon inspection. — Is Texas our future? The question got kicked around during the last presidential campaign when Texas Governor Rick Perry was briefly riding high.

Discussion: Booman Tribune and New York Times

Larry Hannan / Florida Times Union:

Marissa Alexander's sentence could triple in ‘warning-shot’ case — A Jacksonville woman whose case generated outrage when she was sentenced to 20 years in prison may end up behind bars for 60 years for the same crime. — The Office of State Attorney Angela Corey will seek to put Marissa Alexander …

Discussion: Gone Viral Blog, PoliticusUSA, Shakesville, Black Youth Project and Dispatches from the Underclass

Jay Newton-Small / TIME:

TIME Newsmaker Interview with John McCain: On Ukraine, Syria, Barack Obama, Chris Christie — Plus: His take on working with Obama on foreign policy, Chris Christie's survival and why climate change isn't dead — Tapping a black sharpy on his right hand, John McCain sat in his Senate offices …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Post Politics and Taegan Goddard's …

Emily Stephenson / Reuters:

Hundreds of Keystone protesters arrested at White House … WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Police arrested hundreds of young people protesting the Keystone XL project on Sunday, as demonstrators fastened themselves with plastic ties to the White House fences and called for U.S. President Barack Obama to reject the controversial oil pipeline.

ABC News:
Pipeline Protesters Arrested at White House

Discussion: Politico

Reid J. Epstein / Politico:

Lerner's attorney says she won't testify, Issa wrong — Rep. Darrell Issa doesn't know what he's talking about, the attorney for former IRS official Lois Lerner said Sunday. — Issa, the California Republican who chairs the House Oversight and Reform Committee, told “Fox News Sunday” …