From health care to Syria, President Obama is at the mercy of events

Republicans called Obama’s bluff, let the cuts go through, and have paid no price. The failure of the gun vote in the Senate was a second demonstration that Obama suddenly was at the mercy of events. It was a point made emphatically and terribly when the Tsarnaev brothers detonated their bombs at the Boston Marathon.

The terror attack took the gun control fight out of the news and scrambled the rest of the president’s agenda. The revelation that the terrorists had been granted asylum, and the immigration status of the three suspects taken into custody Wednesday, threw into question the notion that immigration is an unalloyed good.

As if that weren’t enough, the disclosure of possible use of chemical weapons in the Syrian Civil War made the president even more defensive. “Red lines” had to be redrawn. New rationalizations for inaction had to be made.

From Obamacare to spending to foreign policy, the president is reacting to events rather than shaping them. It’s what happens when you win reelection without a clear agenda that has a realistic chance of passing Congress. It’s what happens when your foreign policy is based on the concept of leading from behind.